Book Description The highest standards in editing and production have been applied to the Wordsworth Children's Classics, while the low price makes them affordable for everyone. Wordsworth's list covers a range of the best-loved stories for children, from nursery tales, classic fables, and fairy tales to stories that will appeal to older children and adults alike. Many of these volumes have contemporary illustrations, and while they are ideal for shared family reading, their attractive format will also encourage children to read for themselves. Like all Wordsworth Editions, these children's books represent unbeatable value. The tales of Ratty, Mole, Badger and Toad. When Mole goes boating with the Water Rat instead of spring-cleaning, he discovers a new world. As well as the river and the Wild Wood, there is Toad's craze for fast travel which leads him and his friends on a whirl of trains, barges, gipsy caravans and motor cars and even into battle. Amazon.com If you ever feel like falling into a beautiful comic-book story--in the same way one falls back into a warm field of grass--reach for Michel Plessix's lush adaptation of Kenneth Grahame's Wind in the Willows. The artwork is an aquarelle, with thin, precise, detailed lines. It's no wonder he received numerous awards for his previous effort, Julien Boisvert, a contemporary take on the Tintin character type. In Wind in the Willows, Plessix breathes life into Mole, Rat, and Toad (of Toad Hall) as they picnic on the riverbank, indulge in Toad's latest fad, and get lost in Wild Wood. The pacing is masterful: each panel lingers just long enough to make you appreciate the simple pleasures of life. From Booklist Gr. 4^-6. In spirit, in style, and in technique, Benson's illustrations for The Wind in the Willows are first cousins to the book's original ink drawings by Ernest H. Shepard, which many consider so nearly perfect any new artwork is superfluous. However, from the endpaper maps to the quiet scenes of woods and riverbanks to the comical pictures of Toad's adventures, Benson's sensitive cross-hatched drawings offer excellent interpretations of characters and events. The best choice for any library would be to add this to the collection and let children choose the version that suits them. If they come across the other editions later, it will be like looking through a cousin's photos of a long-ago family reunion: so familiar and so full of beloved characters, yet seen from a slightly different perspective. Any way you look at it, this new edition will be treasured. Carolyn Phelan From AudioFile This classic adventure story, set in early twentieth-century Britain, features the lovable characters Rat, Toad, Mole, and Badger. Narrator Shelly Frasier's clear, pleasant voice carefully distinguishes these four creatures, and it's easy to keep their identities straight, though her throaty characterization of Ratty's voice occasionally makes one want to cough. However, Frasier must constantly switch from her native American accent to the British voices of her characters, which is somewhat distracting at first, though one gets used to it as the story moves along. The naughty toad is her best creation--she seems to understand his dreamy but destructive love of motor cars completely. J.C.G. The Merriam-Webster Encyclopedia of Literature A linked series of animal tales by Kenneth Grahame, considered a classic of English children's literature. The book was begun as a series of bedtime stories for Grahame's son and was published in 1908. The tales relate the adventures of four animal friends and neighbors in the English countryside--Mole, Rat, Toad (of Toad Hall), and Badger. Although the animals converse and behave like humans, each creature also retains its distinctive animal habits. Book Dimension : length: (cm)19.8 　　　 　　　　　 　　　　　 width:(cm)12.6