The Book I'm Reading: The Wind in the WIllows by Kenneth Grahame

I've been reading Kenneth Grahame's The Wind in the Willows to Jacqueline for just a little over a month now, and I am very sad to say that we have only about 90 pages to go. Because I don't want this book to end. It is good on a Good Kid's Book Level, of course...and the illustrations, by Patrick Benson, are just fanTASTic...but it's more than that, too. In the way that all great "children's" books are more than children's books. The story allows you to stumble upon bits of real wisdom. Not a full stumble, mind you, as, if you so desire, you can right yourself and continue on your journey unoffended. But if you choose to stop and stare for a moment, there is some very good stuff indeed.

This bit, for instance:

There it is, eh? Of course Shake-speare got there first 

...function

Is smothered in surmise — and nothing is,

But what is not.

Macbeth Act I, scene iii, ll. 142-144a

but hey, Eddie was first in just about everything, so that's no slight on Kenny G. 

ANYway...I really love this book, love the characters, and wish that there were sequels. What? Oh. Okay. Not by Kenneth Grahame, but I'm willing to give it a shot. So I feel slightly less bad about the fact that I'll be finished this book in another month or so, knowing that The Willows in Winter is there...and it, too, has Patrick Benson illustrations. I don't know much about the author, William Horwood, but it looks like he has some street cred. 

Time (and I) will tell.

P.S. Oh. Just took another look for William Harwood, and it looks like the feller has done a bunch of The Wind in the Willows sequels: 

The Willows in Winter (1993)

Toad Triumphant (1995)

The Willows and Beyond (1996)

The Willows at Christmas (1999)

So if things go well with Winter, there's a lot of love left in the Willows World. 

Fingers crossed.