[Kitanna]

My mom read TH to my brother and I every summer from the time I was four and he was six. The most mature part, to me, is the Battle of Five Armies and that's not all that scary. The Hobbit obviously sets the stage for the more serious LOTR trilogy, but it's so light hearted and fun it's easy to forget the darker parts of Middle-Earth.

Then again The Hobbit could be put in the fantasy section or even in the classics section (if Anne Rice's vampire series can be put there so can Tolkien's work). It has the ability to fall in more than one section and I don't see why young adult couldn't be one of them. Perhaps the idea behind moving it to a young adult section has to do with the fact teenagers are the group most marketed to, at least here in the States they are. Moving TH into a teen section encourages reading beyond Twilight-like books and also makes money for the interested parties.