A mole leaves his cramped underground den and meets a water rat, who introduces him to the wide world, including Rat’s narcissistic friend Toad, who lives in a mansion and is obsessed with cars. Rat tells Mole that he can meet Rat’s friend Badger once spring comes, but Mole doesn’t want to wait and ends up lost in the snowy woods trying to find Badger’s house. Toad crashes all of his own cars by driving too fast, then steals someone else’s and crashes it and goes to prison. He escapes from prison to find his mansion has been overtaken by stoats and weasels, but Mole, Rat, and Badger help him take it back.

The opening story is lovely, with Mole meeting Rat and feeling a friendly connection and them spending a nice time together. Once Toad gets involved the book totally lost me. It’s supposed to be funny that he crashes cars and also that he’s terrible to his servants and the tenants of his estate, escapes from prison and barely learns a lesson. All of the parts without Toad are fine, and I enjoy Mole and Rat’s friendship, but the book is like half about Toad. There’s quite a lot of sexism throughout the book - complaining about how annoying “lady nurses” are, calling a woman a “wench” for no reason, and Toad dressing up like a woman to escape prison and being constantly sexually harassed. And of course there's not a single named female character, let alone any that the text treats respectfully. I would want to heavily edit the text before reading it to a kid (there’s also a small section that repeatedly uses the slur for Roma, but I think the word could just be skipped).

Some of the book is funny-bad (as opposed to bad-bad). Why are there normal horses? Also humans are there, and the animals are roughly the same size as them? Why and how does Toad brush his hair? Also Toad gets sent to HUMAN PRISON which is very funny. And the animals eat things like custard (where did they get the eggs??) and ham. They could almost just be humans with the names of animals. ( )

4.5 rounded up. I love stories with animals as the people, from Frog and Toad and the Redwall series to Watership Down and the Rats of Nimm. This one never appeared in my childhood somehow, but it was just as enjoyable now and I can read it to my own children. The critters are fierce friends who seek to hold each other accountable and support each other through thick and thin. A true classic. ( )

I never had the opportunity to read Wind in the Willows as a child and it is great to finally get to read this book as an adult, I am not entirely sure I would have enjoyed this as an 8-10 year old girl as the language is a little stiff and proper for a child and also for the fact there are no girls in the story.

I think it would make a fantastic read aloud book to a child as I can imagine putting voices to all the characters.

The Wind in the Willows book is a classic tale of animals and river life and friendship.
The characters are wonderful and I especially liked Mole and Ratty and I found Toad funny and sometimes annoying.

A nice story and I always find something comforting in reading a classic children’s book. I will keep adding them to my reading list and enjoy those comforting moments! ( )

Loved it. Wasn't expecting this fantastically poetic prose. I came upon a chapter called "Piper at the Gates of Dawn" and realized that's where Pink Floyd got the title for the first album. Makes sense as psychedelic bands similarly loved Lewis Carroll (esp. Beatles' "Walrus" and Jefferson Airplane's "White Rabbit.") But I like this even better than "Alice."
Bought it for boys since it's a kids book & we'd watched Disney's "Frog and Toad"
But whoa. I can't imagine a modern kid reading & liking it. Were children in Victorian England geniuses? Or perhaps they'd only understand 4 words out of 5 and get the basic gist while the parents enjoyed the poetry of the language? Maybe the slowness of the story would put kids to sleep?
The Disney version is far off from the book. But I don't blame Disney, there's no way they (or I think anyone) could turn this into a short kid's cartoon for a modern audience. They're version was cute, I don't mind that that they only used whatever parts of the source material they wanted. It's an adaption that works on a different level. ( )

Book 296 - Kenneth Grahame - The Wind in the Willows

This was so much fun. By simply naming the characters after the animals they are then it is a short cut to who they. The simple adventures of Mole, Rat (Water Rat), Badger and of course Toad… are an absolute joy. Never condescending…always treating them all as real the tales of this riverbank are very special.

From Mole and Rat getting lost in the Dark Wood…to the literal trials of Toad it is easy to see why this wonderful book written in the early years of the twentieth is still so popular today.

I also loved the little sidesteps to other lesser known characters but they are all so well formed…so brilliantly written and, simply, characters you would want to spend so much more time with. Magnificently told. ( )