by Kenneth Grahame
Recommended Age: 12+

I don't dare say much about this story, except to hint that it has to do with a Mole and a Water Rat, a Badger and a Toad, who dress up in fine clothes, mess around in boats, drive automobiles, and have various adventures. Few readers can resist the battle for Toad Hall against a gang of weasels and similar vermin. Toad is, to be sure, a fascinating character, and he probably represents the headlong rush into modernity that alarmed Grahame into writing this book in 1908. It is, in essence, a warmly nostalgic look at an age, and a countryside, that even then had begun to transform beyond recognition. Or maybe it's a portrait of the dream of endless childhood.

Maybe the kind of child that would enjoy this book exists mostly inside grown-ups. To such children I especially recommend the real, original, pre-Hollywood Wind in the Willows.
EDIT: I know of, but have not read, another book by this author, titled The Reluctant Dragon. However, I have heard, and highly recommend, John Rutter's musical setting of this story.
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