Hey. I'm back with the next chapter of Strictly Bilbo. In this chapter Bilbo will learn...wait for it...wait for it...our hero Bilbo will learn how to read. I would like to thank dreamflower02 for your review. And also for the prompt. And I would like to thank blueskydog for review the story this far. And so without further ado here is the next chapter.

Belladonna wanted her son to have the best education a young hobbit lad could get. And her family could afford it too. The Took's were a prosperous family. As were the Bagginses. But there were somethings it was just better to teach a young hobbit oneself.

"Mama," said young Bilbo, "what are we going to do today?"

She looked down at her young son's smiling face. Belladonna could tell her son was looking for something fun and interesting to do.

"Would you like to go on an adventure of a sort today?" she asked her son stooping down to be on his level.

Young Bilbo got excited at this prospect of adventure. And fun time with his mother.

"I would really like that mama," said Bilbo practically jumping for joy.

Belladonna smiled. She would surprise him in a few minutes.

"Follow me then," she said leading the boy into a room filled with books. She looked over to see the excitement drop from her sons face. Confusion soon set in.

"Where going on an adventure to father's library?" asked the inquisitive young hobbit with a quirked eyebrow.

Belladonna nodded. "We are going to go a literary adventure," she told her son.

"A literally adventure?"

"Literary adventure. It means a book adventure."

This didn't sound to adventurous to Bilbo. Books were very boring all his older cousins had told him thus. They had said when he was older his parents would make him read these stuffy books. Full of dull numbers and other such stuff. Bilbo didn't think he'd find adventure here.

"But mama," he tried to explain, "my cousins say that books are dull."

"Well the kinds of book that children their ages are made to read are quite dull," explained Belladonna. She picked up a childs book with a dragon on the front. "But the books for youngsters like you are not. See a story about a dragon. Do you want to read it?"

Bilbo looked doubtfully at the book and then up at his mother's grinning face. If it made his mother happy he would do it.

"Okay mama," he said.

Belladonna lead the way over to a cosy looking armchair. She sat down and then pulled Bilbo up into the chair with her.

"Can you tell me what this says?" she asked pointing to the title page.

It said the Littlest Dragon.

"I don't know mama," was the reply.

"Let's start with this word. Can you tell me the letters in it?"

"L...I...T...T...L...E...S...T"

"The L make a La sound like singing. And the I and T..."

"Are like it. It is something about little?"

"You just have to add a st to end and you have the word correct my dear."

"Littlest," crowed Bilbo. "And the next word is dragon? Like in the picture."

"That is right. Now what do all stories begin with Bilbo?"

"Once upon a time..."

Mother and son spent the day reading quietly. And Bilbo's father was quite surprised to find his wife and son fast asleep in his armchair. He gently pulled a blanket over the sleeping pair.

There you have it folks. Bilbo learns to read. Please let me know what you think. And if you have any prompts please let me know.