The most popular children's book ever written, lovingly illustrated by John Burningham.
Kenneth Grahame began to tell the tale of the river bank on the night of his son's fourth birthday, but what started out as a short bedtime story soon grew into one of the most enjoyable series of adventures ever to be told in children's literature.
The entertaining exploits of the book's four intrepid heroes - Mole, Water Rat, Badger and the incorrigible Toad - have captured the imagination of generations of children.
This beautiful edition is illustrated by renowned picture book artist John Burningham, whose wonderfully evocative line drawings marry perfectly with Graham's vivid text. There are twelve glorious full-colour scenes, full of detail, to enjoy over again and again.
This book is part of a book series called The Wind in the Willows .
This book has been graded for interest at 7-10 years.
There are 240 pages in this book. This book was published 2018 by Penguin Books Ltd .
Kenneth Grahame (1859-1932) was a Scottish writer, most famous for one of the all-time classics of children's literature, The Wind in the Willows, as well as for The Reluctant Dragon. John Burningham (1936-2019) studied illustration and graphic design at the Central School of Art, graduating with distinction in 1959. Many illustration commissions followed including iconic posters for London Transport, before the publication of Borka: the Adventures of a Goose with No Feathers, Johns first book for children (Cape, 1963) which won the prestigious Kate Greenaway Medal for illustration and heralded the beginning of an extraordinary career. John Burningham has since written and illustrated over thirty picture books, that have been translated and distributed all over the world. These feature his classic and much loved childrens books including Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, by Ian Fleming (Jonathan Cape, 1964); Mr Gumpys Outing (Jonathan Cape, 1970) also awarded the Kate Greenaway Medal; Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne (Jonathan Cape, 1972); The Shopping Basket (Random House, 1980); The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame (Penguin/Puffin, 1983); Granpa (Jonathan Cape, 1984) later made into an animated film and Oi! Get off our Train (Jonathan Cape, 1989) and various books for adults England (Jonathan Cape, 1992); France (Jonathan Cape, 1998); The Time of Your Life (Bloomsbury Publishing, 2002) and When We Were Young (Bloomsbury Publishing, 2004). Tug of War was republished in 2012, and a special edition of Borka, celebrating 50 years in print, was published in June 2013. Picnic appeared in the autumn of 2013 and The Way to the Zoo was published in the UK in 2014. Chitty Chitty Bang Bang is celebrating its 50th year in print with a limited edition in hardback to be published in 2015.
This book contains the following story:
The Wind in the Willows
Mole is spring cleaning his home when Ratty persuades him that there is nothing so much fun as messing about on boats. The two set off In Ratty's row boat and picnic by the riverside, then spend days in Ratty's riverside home. One day they decide to visit Toad at Toad Hall. Toad persuades the two of them to join him in his lovely yellow caravan. All goes well until the caravan is knocked into the road by a passing motor car. Days pass and Mole tries and fails to persuade Ratty to take him to meet the elusive Badger, so he sets off on his own and gets lost in the Wild Wood. Ratty rescues him and they stay the night at Badger's House. Meanwhile Toad has become so obscessed with cars he'borrows' one from a courtyard and end up in prison. The jailer's daughter takes pity on him and helps him to escape dressed in her washerwoman's clothes. However whilst Toad has been in prison, stoats and weasels have taken over Toad Hall and in a final battle Badger, Ratty , Mole and Toad must eject them and reinstate Toad.
