The Wind in the Willows
In 1903 Kenneth Grahame was shot during a bank robbery. Injured and in ill health he retired from banking and began to write down the bedtime stories he had told his children. What proceeded was The Wind in the Willows, and all time classic of children's literature. Willows is, what I like to call, a bridge book. Written in the early part of last century, it bridges the gap between Aesop and Aesop's Fables and the new revolution that would happen 20 years later with Steam Boat Willy. Insomuch as it uses animals to convey and teach children a moral message.
Willows mostly concentrates on the British class (or caste depending on how one looks at it) system. Rules are hard fast, unspoken, and not breached. Characters like Badger will point out to the reader that in the animal world it's a serious breach of etiquette to question why an animal disappears suddenly in the middle of a conversation or why an animal may drift off to sleep in the middle of the day during winter. Books like this create an easy way of teaching societal lessons by using something that a child can identify. Toad, for example, becomes obsessed with automobiles. So much so, that it's cause for the rest of the animals to have a bit of an intervention. Toad fails and is sent off to prison. The story is cute, but also creates a foundation of how to behave when someone who is deeply loved has something that is a abused. Friends rise to the occasion, not shrink from it.
I've shelved Wind in the Willows for now. It may end up being given to a friend with children for bedtime reading. It may also be on it's way to be sold when I need to weed down my shelves. As much as I loved reading it, it just didn't catch me as it did years ago. It felt more like a homework assignment and less like visiting old friends. Some books just don't read well outside of a given time period.
Next up is A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court. I've not read much Twain, so this will be new to me. I'm already a few chapters in and it's very enjoyable.
In 1903 Kenneth Grahame was shot during a bank robbery. Injured and in ill health he retired from banking and began to write down the bedtime stories he had told his children. What proceeded was The Wind in the Willows, and all time classic of children's literature. Willows is, what I like to call, a bridge book. Written in the early part of last century, it bridges the gap between Aesop and Aesop's Fables and the new revolution that would happen 20 years later with Steam Boat Willy. Insomuch as it uses animals to convey and teach children a moral message.
Willows mostly concentrates on the British class (or caste depending on how one looks at it) system. Rules are hard fast, unspoken, and not breached. Characters like Badger will point out to the reader that in the animal world it's a serious breach of etiquette to question why an animal disappears suddenly in the middle of a conversation or why an animal may drift off to sleep in the middle of the day during winter. Books like this create an easy way of teaching societal lessons by using something that a child can identify. Toad, for example, becomes obsessed with automobiles. So much so, that it's cause for the rest of the animals to have a bit of an intervention. Toad fails and is sent off to prison. The story is cute, but also creates a foundation of how to behave when someone who is deeply loved has something that is a abused. Friends rise to the occasion, not shrink from it.
I've shelved Wind in the Willows for now. It may end up being given to a friend with children for bedtime reading. It may also be on it's way to be sold when I need to weed down my shelves. As much as I loved reading it, it just didn't catch me as it did years ago. It felt more like a homework assignment and less like visiting old friends. Some books just don't read well outside of a given time period.
Next up is A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court. I've not read much Twain, so this will be new to me. I'm already a few chapters in and it's very enjoyable.
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