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Start discussion here for The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame.

Summary from GradeSavers


Though published over 100 years ago, The Wind the Willows has survived as a classic children's novel, one which has been in print since initial publication and continues to delight children even today.

Kenneth Grahame created the characters of Toad, Mole, Rat, and Badger through bedtime stories told to his son Alastair around 1904. Even while Alastair was away at school, Grahame’s letters continued the animals’ adventures. However, it was not until Grahame moved to the country in 1908 that he found the tranquility to compile these stories together into the novel The Wind in the Willows.

Grahame’s first two novels, The Golden Age and Dreamy Days, had been received with great acclaim by the critics, so he was shocked when The Wind in the Willows had trouble finding a publisher. It was not until American President Theodore Roosevelt lobbied for the book’s publication that Methuen and Co. decided to print the work. Critics were initially harsh, since Grahame's first books had followed an orphan family named the Olympians, and they expected a continuation of that story. And yet these negative reviews did not deter the public from devouring the book; it was an instant success.


About the author from Penguin Readers


Kenneth Grahame (1859–1932) first wrote about children and then for them, becoming one of the best-loved authors of children’s literature in English, and providing the world with one of the classic children’s stories of all time, The Wind in the Willows.

How did Grahame acquire his gift? Perhaps it came from his own difficult childhood, which saw him orphaned at an early age. Perhaps it came from his own experiences as a father, telling stories to his son, Alistair. The Wind in the Willows is, apparently, a reconstruction of the actual bedtime stories he shared with his son.

He certainly loved children, calling them ‘the only really living people’. In other respects, too, he wrote about what he loved. Although he was born in Scotland, he moved to Berkshire to live with his grandmother after the death of his parents, and came to love the countryside, especially the River Thames. He retired there after ill-health forced him to retire from his full time job, as Secretary at the Bank of England in 1907. He became increasingly reclusive after the tragic death of his son, Alistair, at the age of just 20. Kenneth Grahame died in Pangbourne on the Thames on 6th July 1932.


Discussion Questions from Google Sites


1. One of the problems that the illustrators run into is the size ratio between the human world and the animal world: some say that the animals are normal animal sizes while others say the animals and humans are the same size (e.g., how is Mr. Toad able to have and ride horses or a motorcar?). Grahame doesn't give any hint as to how these proportions work in reality; if you were an illustrator what would you do?

2. One of Grahame's personal concerns in life was the increasing difficulty of escaping to Nature with the rise of industrialization; how is this reflected in The Wind in the Willows?

3. Although it was eventually published in the United States (with the insistence of Teddy Roosevelt), The Wind in the Willows was initially rejected by every publisher who received it. Why do you think this was? If written today, would this book be published?

4. What is it about The Wind in the Willows that has allowed it to endure and thrive for over 100 years? What makes it different from some of the other books from this period we've read so far, say, Peter Pan or Alice in Wonderland?

5. "Pan was the god of shepherds and flocks, of mountain wilds, hunting and rustic music. He wandered the hills and mountains of Arkadia playing his pan-pipes and chasing Nymphs. His unseen presence aroused feelings of panic in men passing through the remote, lonely places of the wilds," according to Theoi.com. In the past couple weeks, we have seen reference to this Greek god a couple of times--first, in Peter Pan, and then, here, as Chapter 7's "Piper at the Gates of Dawn": what connections can be made here, and what is their significance?

Diane wrote: "Summary from GradeSavers


Critics were initially harsh, since Grahame's first books had followed an orphan family named the Olympians, and they expected a continuation of that story. "

Wow this is ironic, since I couldn't tell you anything Kenneth Grahame wrote besides The Wind in the Willows.

As regarding question 1 with the sizes, even though I listened to the audiobook, I thought of this too! I sort of pictured the animals as fluid in size, like it was always relative. I think of Toad as large enough to engage human-style with an automobile and a horse and the barge-woman, but I also think of the animals as small enough to burrow through the soil and to be frightened when they're caught in a storm in the woods.

Having grown up with The Wind in the Willows as a favourite childhood book the question of size ratio never occurred to me. The original illustrations helped of course as well as the spin off pantomimes that I would be taken to at Christmas time. I suppose that it's the child's eye that enjoys fantasy and the readiness to suspend belief in the everyday so that anything can happen. As an aside, the poem In and out the blackwater.... was the first poem I was taught at school at about 6 years of age and I still remember it and smile as as I recite it :)

Theresa, I agree with you, the comparative sizes of the animals never really bothered me. There are so many other areas of the book when you just have to take a leap of faith and go with it, one more doesn't spoil my enjoyment one bit! I still love this as much as I loved my first Ladybird adaptation as a child. One of the things I have grown to appreciate upon reading it in full as an adult is the way Graham describes the natural world, chapters 7 and 9 were really enjoyable this time around.

The Wind in the Willows is a lifelong favorite book of mine as well. So much so that I included it in my discussion of great fantasy books in The Purpose of Fantasy: A Reader's Guide to Twelve Selected Books with Good Values and Spiritual Depth

(Some of you might enjoy that; a Kindle edition is available at that link for just $.99.)

I'm always amazed by the reverence for nature that surrounds the descriptions of the river, and the beautiful Piper at the Gates of Dawn chapter.

And the relationship of Rat & Mole is endearing.

Though I confess I'm also partial to the enthusiastic madcap mania of Toad.