Skunk and Badger
by Amy Timberlake (Algonquin Young Readers, 2020); audiobook read by Michael Boatman (Workman, 2020)
A 21st Century Wind in the Willows, though preferring character and incident to the wistful idyll of its setting. While Badger and Skunk’s friendship comes with a moral, the story is nothing but whimsy and fun, dipping about like an untethered kite.
Finn Family Moomintroll
by Tove Jansson, trans. Elizabeth Portch (BBC Audiobooks, 2002/2008) [first published by Hugo Gebers Förlag as “Trollkarlens hatt”, 1949]
Where England has The Wind in the Willows, Finland has the Moomins: anthropomorphised animals whose bucolic, lazy afternoon adventures offer the reader a contentedness beyond mere plot arcs and perils. Hugh Laurie is the perfect voice artist for bringing them to life.