A lighthearted and fun children's book featuring prominent death, war, racism, foul and scary creatures, and bitter ends for some. If your issue is with action and melodrama, take it up with the source material.
despite your list, the hobbit is undeniably lighthearted. it's a violent world, but bilbo takes a backseat through all of it. you see the world through a hobbit's eyes, which is basically when can i eat and/or sleep. and it is a children's book seeing as how tolkein did write it for his children.
when it comes to war, prominent death and bitter ends, that all occurs in one battle at the end. beforehand, bilbo took a ride in a barrel.
as for racism, well, that's tolkien for ya
foul and scary creatures... you're not trying to pad that list, right?
tolkien's stories have very little melodrama... one could even say that it's lacking in even drama. the LOTR movies are ridiculous with its melodrama, but since the book trilogy is an epic, i'll pretend to forgive it. the hobbit is not an epic, it's a story and it shouldn't even last three hours. and i can verify that galadriel doesn't lovingly brush away gandalf's hair.