title: Roverandom
author:  J. R. R. Tolkien 
description: Grade 3-5-Begun in 1925, this fantasy was roughly finished later, but set aside in favor of sequels to The Hobbit. Here, at last, two Tolkien scholars present it, with five illustrations by the author sandwiched between a long, minutely detailed introduction and padded but sometimes illuminating endnotes. Changed from a live dog into a toy after incautiously biting a wizard, Rover is dropped on the beach by his young owner, where he meets a second wizard who sends him on a gull's back to the Man-in-the-Moon. Sporting wings and a new name, "Roverandom" irritates the Great White Dragon that causes lunar eclipses and visits a valley where sleeping children gather for pleasant dreams, among other places, then returns to Earth to beg the first wizard, a bumbling sort who has since married a mermaid and moved under the ocean, to make him a real dog again. Despite a wandering plot and minor inconsistencies, the old Tolkien magic is here in full force: in evocative names, glimpses of supernal events, and wonderfully exotic locales seen through the eyes of a comfortably familiar character. Enthusiasts will pore over the notes, but the story stands well enough on its own as an incidental piece from one of our century's great literary imaginations.<br /><i>John Peters, New York Public Library</i><br />Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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  First Mariner Books edition 2018
  
  
  All texts and materials by J.R.R. Tolkien © The Tolkien Estate Limited 2017  
  
  
  Preface, Notes and all other materials © C.R. Tolkien 2017  
  
  
  Illustrations including cover © Alan Lee 2017
  
  
  Cover design © HarperCollins _Publishers_ Ltd.
  
  
  All rights reserved
  
  
  For information about permission to reproduce selections from this book, write
  to [trade.permissions@hmhco.com](mailto:trade.permissions@hmhco.com) or to
  Permissions, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company, 3 Park Avenue, 19th
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  ![](../images/00002.jpeg)® and “Tolkien,”® “Beren”® and “Lúthien,”® are
  registered trademarks of The Tolkien Estate Limited
  
  
  First published by HarperCollins _Publishers_ 2017
  
  
  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available.
  
  
  ISBN 978-1-328-79182-5  
  
  
  ISBN 978-1-328-91533-7 (pbk.)
  
  
  eISBN 9