Book of Days

When Josh was 4 years old I read aloud to him, The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame. He was enthralled by the language and the illustrations as the book we had was one that had illustrations by Ernest H. Shepherd of the Winnie the Pooh fame.

Years later, in a bargain pile in a bookstore, I came across this adaptation written and illustrated by Inga Moore:

Recently I purchased this copy illustrated by Patrick Benson:

Yesterday Josh finished re-reading the adapted version by Inga Moore. He says that these illustrations speak to him more than the others and the adaptation is done so well you do not lose much from Grahame’s original. I am re-reading the Benson version and shared with Josh this morning two passages that spoke to me especially.

Josh has declared The Wind in the Willows to be his all time favorite book ever. He has a dream of going to London and living on the banks of the river Thames just as Grahame did. When I read this passage last night I thought of Josh’s dream”

“I beg your pardon,” said the Mole…”So - this - is - a - River?”
“The River,” corrected the Rat.
” And you really live by the river? What a jolly life?”
“By it and with it and on it and in it,” said the Rat. It’s brother and sister to me, and aunts, and company, and food and drink, and (naturally) washing. It’s my world, and I don’t want any other…”

Josh then laughed when I read him the section I thought reminded me of myself:

“Beyond the Wild Wood comes the Wide World,” said the Rat, “and that’s something that doesn’t matter, either to you or me. I’ve never been there, and I’m never going, nor you either, if you’ve got any sense at all…”

This morning Josh went with me as I took my 17 yr old daughter, along with two of her friends, to the airport for a visit to UNR in Reno. You know, that whole deciding which college you want to go to :) Joshua absolutely loves airports and flying. Very unlike his mother who seems to be intimidated by the vastness and confusion of it all. Having a Starbuck’s and danish while we waited to make sure the girls had met their chaperon at the departing gate, I commented on the passage again describing Rat’s avoidance of the “wide world” and saying I knew just how he felt. Josh looked at me, smiled and said, “Mom, sometimes it’s good to get out into the Wide World.”