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The Wind in the Willows/The Willows in Winter

The Wind in the Willows/The Willows in Winter

List Price: $14.95
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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Animal Blockbuster!
Review: I read the book for an English report. I thought I'd hate it. My mom made me read it. She always picks the worst books! Surprisingly, after the first 10 pages, I couldn't put it down. This group of friends is more than the story of there adventures. It's the story of them.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Not that good.
Review: I was forced by my Mother-who loves these kind of animals stories to read it. I thought it would be easy. I mean come on little rats and moles talking is definately a childrens story. But this was so hard to read! In more than one of the chapters I had no idea what was going on. However it was a well written story it just didn't fit my tastes. My Mom read it and loved it. There were a few good parts. But in the jail the human was as big as the toad. It was very confusing..

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A delightful animal tale for all ages
Review: This richly drawn, well paced book of adventures (and misadventures) of Toad of Toad Hall, Rat, Mole, and Badger, is delightful reading. Whether you are 9 or 90, you will enjoy the characters and their escapades. This is humorous, exciting, and lots of fun.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A delightful children's story that captures the imagination.
Review: The Wind in the Willows is a delightful tale that captures the imaginations of children and adults. The adventures of Mr.Badger, Toad, Mole and Ratty are skillfully presented in a way that the reader can identify with. The illustrations enhance the tale and help the mind create the scenes described. This book can be enjoyed by the young and the young at heart.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: I LOVE THIS BOOK!
Review: I read the book last year as a third grader. Now I am almost in fifth grade, but I still remember the courage of Rat, the curiosity of Mole, the risks taken by the foolish Toad, and the stern, but caring, characteristic of Badger. Wind In the Willows was a simply beautiful book that will encourage children that even when you make a mistake, never to give up. This book had action and excellent descriptions. I now own a copy of the book, and I am reading it for a marvelous second time. I compliment Kenneth Gramme on his wonderful book

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A masterpiece for all ages: sweet, wise and funny.
Review: The Wind in the Willows is a treasure trove of words. I will share it with my children when they are eight or nine years old. Some parts of the story can be scary if kids are too young. For young and old, The Wind in the Willows contains memorable characters, dramatic events, wise humor, rich use of the English language, lovely and colorfully painted illustrations and a tenderness and sweetness that is rare. It is as much a pleasure to read for adults as for children. I fondly recall the hours I spent curled up next to my mom as she read The Wind and the Willows to my sister and me. Images from it filled my childhood dreams. It has enriched the worlds of my imagination ever since

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A great work for readers of all ages
Review: I doubted if a children's book could command my interest at this advanced stage of my life, but I have to say that "The Wind in the Willows" completely enthralled me. It is the story of four personified animals, the eponymously named Mole, Water Rat, Badger, and Toad, who live on or near a river that runs through an idyllic countryside obviously modeled on Edwardian England. In their world, physical size with regard to objects and other animals doesn't follow any kind of common logic or consistency; the animals seem to be simultaneously as big as humans and small enough to live in their own natural habitats.

The animals have vivid human personalities. Mole is timorous and meek, Rat is adventurous and poetic, Badger is unpredictable but protective and mean when he needs to be. Toad, however, is the most salient figure; he is wealthy, greedy, conceited, and clumsy, and he lives in a stately manor called Toad Hall. Mole and Rat's interests are simple; they enjoy boating down the river and socializing with other animals, including otters, field mice, and a seafaring Rat who regales the Water Rat with eloquent tales of his voyages around the world. They even encounter the god Pan, in a strangely ecclesiastical moment.

Toad's picaresque adventures throughout the book provide a counterpoint to Mole and Rat's more pastoral activities. Toad is so captivated with the idea of faster and faster transportation that when a motor-car overtakes and wrecks his horse-drawn cart in the road, he can only watch the departing vehicle in avaricious rapture. So then he buys car after expensive car, wrecking each one with his incompetent driving. Despite his friends' attempts to cure him of his obsession, he steals a car in a frenzy and is consequently thrown in jail. However, he escapes by means of a ridiculous ruse and, after many more adventures, finally returns to his native river-bank only to find that Toad Hall has been taken over by gun-toting stoats, weasels, and ferrets. (Note the parallels to Homer's Odyssey here.) Fortunately, his friends rise to the occasion to help him reclaim his home, after which he resolves to learn some modesty.

A great thing about the book is that Grahame uses many words that may be new or unfamiliar to young readers, but they're used in such a way that kids may be able to figure out their meanings by context. Also, while there are lessons to be learned through the animals' (especially Toad's) examples, there is no heavy-handed moralism to dilute the book's enjoyability. Clearly this is a work of the utmost creativity and imagination and demands the adult reader expand his or her mind to the realms of childlike wonder.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A Wonderful Book
Review: Kenneth Graham achieved a masterpiece with The Wind in the Willows. Please don't judge it on the basis of Disney's "Mr. Toad" cartoon; the book itself is lyrical and engaging, with fun characters in wonderful settings facing a number of thrilling adventures. Some scenes are purely down to earth, such as Mr. Toad's escapades with his beloved automobiles, and some are sheer magic, as the Piper at the Gates of Dawn chapter. Reading the musical Christmas chapter has become a holiday tradition in my family.

This is truly a book that anyone can enjoy, a claim that is often made on the front covers of teen-market books but which rarely stands up to the promise. In this case I could read this book to my youngest and oldest child, and all three of us would be entranced.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Excellent Movie
Review: If you've never followed the adventures of a rat, a mole, a badger, or a toad ... well, here is your chance.

This animated movie (that has an un-animated beginning and end) is a delightful mixture of fun, friendship, adventure, and irreverence. The irreverence is provided courtesy of Mr. Toad.

The animation here is excellent, and a good deal of imagination was used in writing the story ... all very much fun ... which follows the lives of the animals living along or near "the river".

The actors who provide the voices for the animals do a superb job of bringing these creatures to life. I think we tend to take these good characterizations for granted, but these fellows here are truly outstanding at giving these animals unique and believable personalities.

My favorite character is the rat ("Rattie") but one cannot help but love Mr. Toad.

But this is a fun movie from beginning to end.


Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Goodtimes Video Savages a Beautifully Animated Tale
Review: If the people of Goodtimes Video Distribution didn't destroy this awesomely animated series with their ghastly editing, this version of Wind of the Willows easily earns 5 stars. A lot of the original British production has been shabbily cut to make 3 "complete cartoons." Inexplicably two of these mangled vignettes actually repeat Toad's car stealing & escape. There is no reason for this bungling. It would have been so much easier just to package & distribute the John Coates/Dave Unwin series in it's original format. This beautiful animated version of Wind of the Willows deserves a better distributor. For shame, Goodtimes!


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