Jared, Oriana and Ned start the new year with Ned’s choice of topic: the short children’s works Roverandom and Mr. Bliss. Tolkien has been described as a children’s author both with praise and disparagement over time, but a more accurate way to put it is that while he was busy working on his cycle of early Middle-earth stories with its high drama and tragedy in the 1920s and 1930s, he was also a loving father to four young children who often made up many stories and tales for them. The Hobbit itself has strong roots in this activity but whether it’s the Father Christmas letters, the original Tom Bombadil stories, the early versions of Farmer Giles of Ham or more besides, it’s a large creative part of his work in those decades. After The Hobbit was accepted for publication, Tolkien provided the manuscripts for, among other submissions, the stories Roverandom and Mr. Bliss for consideration, though the success of The Hobbit and the request for a sequel led him down other paths, with the two stories receiving separate posthumous publication instead. Is there ultimately anything more to Mr. Bliss than a series of random happenings that the titular character barely seems to be at the center of a lot of the time? How does Roverandom work in notable contrast to Mr. Bliss, with its deeper emotions as much as it has a sense of playful satire? How well does Tolkien’s art for both stories achieve a distinct resonance and beauty? And who wouldn’t want to get a newspaper called Ocean Notions, perhaps most applicable these days if you live in a pineapple under the sea?