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CM . . . .
Volume VI Number 5 . . . . October 29, 1999
Recommended for optional purchase.
Valerie Nielsen is a retired teacher-librarian living in Winnipeg, MB.
To comment on this title or this review, send mail to cm@umanitoba.ca.
Copyright © the Manitoba Library Association.
Reproduction for personal use is permitted only if this copyright notice
is maintained. Any other reproduction is prohibited without
permission.
Published by
TABLE OF CONTENTS FOR THIS ISSUE - October 29, 1999.
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To celebrate the 90th birthday of the publication of this well-loved tale, Methuen has brought out
a handsome gift edition of The Wind in the Willows. This elegant volume features new
reproductions of E. H. Shepard's original coloured artwork, some of his early sketches,
photographs of the author and an introduction by well-known writer and broadcaster Brian
Sibley. Sibley's introduction provides the reader with fascinating insights into the life of Kenneth
Grahame and the beginnings of his story about those delightful riverside characters - Ratty, Mole,
Badger and the outrageous Mr. Toad. In his introduction, Sibley quotes Kenneth Graham: "For
every honest reader, there exist some half-dozen honest books, which he re-reads at regular
intervals of six months or thereabouts. Whatever the demands on him . . . for these he somehow
generally manages to find time." Sibley counts himself as an honest reader and finds The Wind in
the Willows just such a book. Perhaps it is too much to hope, in these frantically busy times, that
parents and teachers might manage to find time to enjoy The Wind in the Willows with their
children and students. Interwoven as the book is with beautifully lyrical passages, lovable
characters and comic escapades, it does not lend itself to a quick reading, either aloud or
independently. It is a book to be savored, best read aloud by an adult who loved it as a
child. It will be a rare young person these days who, reading the book independently, falls under
the spell of Grahame's riverside characters and their adventures; however to hear The Wind in
the Willows read aloud and to be able to pore over E. H. Shepard's wonderful illustrations
(completed some twenty years after the original publication of Grahame's classic in 1908) would
be a priceless gift for any child. For the purpose of such a gift, whether to an individual child or a
school library, this beautiful classic edition of The Wind in the Willows is perfect. Attractive as
the book is, however, its cost is likely to put it out of the reach of school library collections,
particularly those which already have a Shepard-illustrated copy on their shelves.