“Wind in the Willows” by Kenneth Grahame represents a crucial turning point in children’s literature. It represents one of
the first times in English Literature that animals represented themselves as walking, talking figures in their own stories. While there are some minor human characters in the later portion of the story, they are equals with and often answer to the animals.The plot suffers somewhat from a lack of continuity, Grahame wrote it in pieces for his young son and the stories and themes can be seen to evolve as the story goes along; perhaps as characters and themes fell in and out of favor with the child. If there is a constant theme it is the theme of The River, winding from beginning to end; always the same and ever changing.In the beginning, the plot largely deals with Mole, who escapes the boredom of his hole one spring day to find life on The River. He befriends and moves in with The Water Rat. Together the two of them have numerous adventures with the local life and with the reclusive Badger.The later part of the story deals more with the adventures of Toad and his love first of wagons then of motor cars. The earlier three characters are still involved but the story clearly revolves around Toad. He is bold, totally unrestrained, and fortunately quite rich.There are also two strange interludes. We meet on separate occasions, a character who is a God of sorts to the animals and also a rat from the sea who tempts the River Rat off to distant adventures.The language is still readable in spite of the book’s age and it is full of wonderful little poems made up by the characters to express their sentiments; altogether a wonderful children’s book.