I have this Scholastic literature guide, from 2002.

remy
1. Yes.
2. No. This (9787543332454) is the second edition in 2013. The third edition is 9787543340862 and 9787543340855 in 2025. Sparknotes are also not generally used as school textbooks in China as far as I know, though I guess individual teachers might recommend them or even use them in electives.

I gave it some thought, and the booklet we used at school was the York Notes (conveniently freshly published the year before).

My introduction to Tolkien was when The Lord of the Rings was included on the English curriculum in my HSC year in 1979 (i.e. Higher School Certificate, aka Year 12 or final year of High School). I'm talking in Victoria, Australia. At the time, I was more into maths and sciences, and I was a shocker when it came to reading, so I never read it!!!!

I somehow sensed that I was going to enjoy reading it, and I did not want the chore of having to read it for school ruin it for me. So I waited until my year after high school, 1980, and leapt into it then.

I managed to pass my English exam having read only 1 or 2 books for the entire year!

At the time, the approved edition for the syllabus was the late 1970s Allen & Unwin one-volume paperback with the cover illustrated by Pauline Baynes. I now have a BCA hardcover version of that same edition.

Fortunate school kids. Tolkien material was never included on the English curriculum at my schools. Far from it as it was frowned upon by many,and never considered as 'literature'; dismissed out of hand as frothy lightweight, meaningless, irrelevant, juvenile, puerile, satanic trash fit only for the bonfire of vanities. Banned in Schools and Public Libraries. Thank goodness for the re-evaluation where the true scale of Tolkien's legacy is becoming increasingly apparent although some way to go what with literary snobbishness to be found lurking everywhere,under mossy stones,even among my relatives the Sackville-Bagginses. Now of course Tolkien is studied by a profusion of professors around the world as is happening right in front of our eyes with Bob Dylan.

On 17 January 1964 in response to Anne Mountfield, a newly qualified teacher who was working at Eltham Green School in London. Mountfield had written to Tolkien that her "rather restless" class had been spellbound when she read them The Hobbit. Tolkien typed her a reply, saying that the story of Bilbo Baggins's adventures "seems to go down well at school". He then added a handwritten note to the bottom of the letter, telling Mountfield that "All teaching is exhausting, and depressing and one is seldom comforted by knowing when one has had some effect. I wish I could now tell some of mine (of long ago) how I remember them and things they said, though I was (only, as it appeared) looking out of the window or giggling at my neighbour".

I also have this Learning with Adventure Programs from 1984 by Rosetta McLeod. A bit different, it focuses on using computer adventure games to stimulate learning and features The Hobbit adventure game from Melbourne house alongside the Hobbit book.