Can children appreciate The Lord of the Rings?

[Eldar14]

Well, I owe a debt of thanks to my 6th grade teacher for handing me a copy of Hobbit and telling me I would probably enjoy it (at the time I was thinking, "what the hell is she giving me a book for, I just wanna stick to my star wars books") However, I had finished it in about a week. Then, in seventh grade, I read the Trilogy and "read" Silmarillion ("read" in quotes 'cause I did not understand it at all) In my eighth grade English class, we had to read the Hobbit in class and I was amazed as to how my classmates didn't understand it (and it was a honors class) (at the time I was reading Les Mis.) In 8th grade I also truly read Sil. for the first time, and also started in on HoME, which I'm still delving through as a ninth grader (I also started posting here when i was reading the Hobbit for english class)

Also, I would like to say that the main reason that I my favorite teacher ever is my 8th grade English teacher is, not only that we read about ten books as a class, but she was also my only teacher I've had who wouldn't tear the books apart looking for a deeper meaning. However, my English teacher this year on the other hand...