The River Bank
by Kij Johnson; ill. Kathleen Jennings (Small Beer Press, 2017)
Johnson’s Wind in the Willows sequel captures the characters and setting of Grahame’s original while adding two new principals: Beryl the Mole lady (an authoress) and her flighty female companion Rabbit, who joins Toad on a misadventure and proves rather more capable.
The Wind in the Willows
by Kenneth Grahame (Methuen, 1908); audiobook read by Michael Hordern (BBC, 2007)
This classic children’s book nowadays seems far-removed in both content and language, its wordy and bucolic idle verging at times on the truly soporific. Then the Toad of Toad Hall comes increasingly to the fore and one can appreciate all the fuss!