my daughter truns 5 in one year  and i'm planning on reading her The Hobbit

she has started to read on her own now, not much just hunts and pecks for the words she knows.

we've started reading chapter books with few pictures. and she loves it

my wife thinks it will be too early.

thanks in advance

paul

ps spelling errors are for your amusment only and does not reflect the eyeque of the poster :)

It's never too early to expose your child to good literature.  Read away.  You'll instill a love of reading and spend some wonderful, quality time with your daughter.  I say go for it and as a teacher, thank you for starting her off right.

We read the hobbit to our boys at this age.

Go for it! she will remember the Quality time and the story.

ladystyx

My mom read us the Chronicles of Narnia when we were that little. My brother was even younger.

I started to read chapter books to my oldest son when he was 5 (and already a reader). He was still listening at 14 when I was reading to my younger son. I started with James and the Giant Peach and while I wouldn't choose that one again to start with, he loved it. Then I found Jim Trelease's Read Aloud Handbook and it really helped me choose books and edit what I was reading (yes, that's OK to do). I even read him a Louis L'amour western! The Hobbit was one of our favorites. Three others that we really enjoyed were My Father's Dragon (an all time favorite of mine and lower level than the others mentioned), Louisa May Alcott's Jo's Boys (I was reading to boys), and Gentle Ben.

You will cherish your time reading to her, get to read books you love and be sad when she says "I'm too old for you to read to me". Can you tell where I got my nickname from?