The Wind in the Willows is an enormous mug of comforting tea while sitting by a fire. It is a comfort read; it is a classic story; it is a tale for all ages. There is delightful humor with hilarious characters. The illustrations make the characters and world come alive. We chose the Ingpen version for our family, but there are various illustrations that bring the imagination to life.
Autumn is a perfect time to begin this book because it shares so many cozy descritpions.
Read Aloud Dad on the illustrations of Wind in the Willows and his favorite.
The tales relate the adventures of several animal friends and neighbours in the English countryside—primarily Mole, Rat, Toad, and Badger. Although the animals converse, philosophize, and behave like humans, each creature also retains its distinctive animal habits. The story begins when Mole decides to go to the riverbank one morning rather than do his spring cleaning. There he comes across his friend Rat, a water rat, and they spend the spring and summer together. One day they visit the irrepressible, generous, and boastful Mr. Toad, owner of Toad Hall, who possesses large amounts of money but not much brain. Toad is given to fads, and Mole and Rat join him in an excursion in his present enthusiasm, a horse-drawn caravan (a cart with beds and cooking equipment), until a speeding automobile frightens the horse and wrecks the caravan. Toad is mesmerized by the car. Mole and Rat later go to the Wild Wood to visit the kindly and responsible Badger, to whom they report that Toad has bought and smashed several automobiles.
The three friends attempt an intervention, to prevent Toad from buying and wrecking more motorcars. Despite their efforts to contain him, Toad escapes, and, when he encounters an unattended car, he steals it. Inevitably, he is caught and sent to prison. However, the jailer’s daughter takes pity on him and helps him escape. After many further adventures, Toad is at last rescued by Rat. He learns that in his absence, Toad Hall has been taken over by weasels and stoats, but Badger knows that Toad Hall has a secret tunnel entrance, and the interlopers are evicted in a climactic battle, followed by a celebratory banquet.
Between Toad’s adventures, the other three main characters experience quieter events, notably in the lyrical chapters “The Piper at the Gates of Dawn,” in which the god Pan appears, unnamed, to help Mole and Rat find Otter’s lost child, and “Wayfarers All,” in which Rat is nearly hypnotized by the tales told by a sea rat. [SOURCE]
“Spring was moving in the air above and in the earth below and around him, penetrating even his dark and lowly little house with its spirit of divine discontent and longing.”
Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows
Find your favorite version of this classic to share with your own family!