Wind in rhe Willows - anyone tried this with their dc?

[WonderingStar]

ds was given a beautiful boxed set of the Wind in the Willows. It is the original novel but split into one or two chapters per "book", plus lovely original illustrations.

he is only 3.8 but chose this to read the other night. we lasted about 5 mins and then I suggested something else. I was editing it the whole time too.

tbh I cannot ever imagine reading this book with ds, it seems so arcane and takes forever to get to the point (which isn't very interesting when it does arrive).

anyone had more success, and at what age?

Why couldn't you just read it to your Ds? He is pretty young to be reading this by himself.

TBH I assume you were reading it to him, rather than him reading it to you.

DS has encountered Mr Toad I think but I'm not sure where. I think TWITW is OK for possibly 10-year-olds and up? I would still read it for nostalgia value, but otherwise I agree with you - I think we are massively spoiled with the quality of fiction available to children these days and frankly a lot of so-called 'classics' don't stand up.

LOL Mollie, of course I was reading it to him! Appreciate my post wasn't very well worded though. He chose the book and as he likes the original Peter Rabbit, Railway Stories etc I thought we would give it a go.

But at age 10 I can't imagine him reading it. I had a copy as a child and don't remember getting through it. I was bored out of my mind this time round! It was so wordy and twee.

dd1 has started to read it aged 9 but she is finding it hard going

Ds has read it, the language is rather complex though.

belle, how old is your ds?

I was a complete bookworm as a child and read well above my age from quite early but I really cannot remember having read this or that I would have wanted to. I went to see it at the theatre so that's probably why I remember the story.

I agree with mackerel - some classics aren't necessarily to be read these days!

Ds is 11 now, he read this at 8 though. He's read a lot of books (don't ask)

Bizarrely, dd took TWITW off a high up shelf where I had childrens books that I thought were too old for her put away & read it very young (not sure when, but we moved from that house when she was just 7, so before that). Not sure how much she understood of it, but she said she enjoyed it ...

I've never liked it myself, I think my childhood copy was only still around because its one of my dad's favourite books.

Maybe it is a book that is better read to oneself, I think a lot of more 'wordy' books are better that way as you can skim the overly purple passages.

I think Wind in the Willows is very much not a children's book.

A group of friends were raving about it the other night but I cannot imagine any of my DC ever reading it. The story is great (hence success of adaptations etc) but the book itself is complex, densely written and rather over spiritual for today's tastes - to say nothing of the out of date ideas and language.

I read this for the first time aged 20ish. Loved it - the characters are so well drawn and timeless. Have given it to dd1 (11 at the time) but she thought it was a bit boring.

This to me is one of those presents that you get to mark an occasion and then store until the child is old enough- a bit like a glass vase or a candlestick.

Winnie-the-Pooh imo also fall into this category: not really suitable for very young children but excellent for pre-teens/adolescents- and actually very, very good for reading aloud to a family of teenagers.

Though having said that, I don't think Wind in the Willows is anything as good as Winnie-the-Pooh, and I find it interesting that my 80yo mother doesn't think so either. Somehow it is less timeless- he shouldn't have brought politics into it. Dd read it around 10, but she felt very much the same, that it is preachier than Milne and therefore less interesting.

Otoh I have made a point of getting my own children used to the denser prose and more complex story-lines of the older classics- such as E. Nesbit, A.A. Milne, Dumas, Jules Verne- as I am aghast to see how many of my English students (at a Russell Group university!) struggle with any prose more complex than a magazine article. I think following a complex story line night after night, read aloud and explained by an adult, is very good training for dealing with complexity of thought in later life.

Mine liked it aged about 6-8,not before. Like Cory's, my children are quite used to dense old fashioned books, they are an acquired habit. I think a lot of the old fashioned classics do still stand up, my dds don't like all of my old favourites but they have loved things like Alice in Wonderland, Heidi, E Nesbitt, Treasure Island.

I wouldn't expect a 3yo to appreciate this sort of book though.

The other great thing about developing an "old fashioned" fiction habit is the way it spills into their creative writing. At 11 my daughter was a huge fan of lm Montgomery - read through all the various stages of anne's life - we started wondering whether there was even an "Anne of the zimmer frame" and on through anne's various relatives, rilla etc and the quality of her writing as a result is rich and complex.

I read Wind in the Willows to DD...can't remember exactly when, maybe about 8. But she was already very familiar with the story from an abridged audiobook version read by Alan Bennett (set including Winne the Pooh and Alice in Wonderland/Looking Glass).

We used to listen to them in the car a lot, started with Pooh, then WITW, then Alice. If you want to introduce your DC to some of these classics, I don't think you can beat Mr Bennett

Beatrix Potter would be more of a 3 yo thing imo. Then the Winnie the Pooh books.

Mouse Tales, and Owl at Home by Arnold Lobel have a lot of appeal for children of a wide range of ages.

I never got through WITW myself. I found a lovely VHS tape of the story years ago for the DCs with Rik Mayall, Vanessa Redgrave, Michael Palin, and Michael Gambon that had the same sort of pacing as the book, and was nicely animated, and yes I know reading it is the whole point, but it's a bit deadly to slog through.

We have a Very Very Big copy which DD was given as a christening present, so she was intrigued by it when she was quite young and wanted to be read the opening a few times when she was just under three, I think. But I imagine it'll be a while yet before we read (or she reads) it properly.

Actually I'm not sure that I've ever read The Wind in the Willows all the way through myself - it still made a big impression on me, though. I remember crying at the part when Mole comes home (Dulce Domum) and not knowing why - I had to ask my mother why I was crying and she explained that it was possible to cry when you were happy! I must have been about six.

Mathanxiety - I didn't know about Mouse Tales/Owl at Home (DD is currently very fond of Frog and Toad). Thanks!

The BBC Audibooks version of WITW is lovely. But more for around 7/8+ I would say.

www.amazon.co.uk/Wind-Willows-Audio-Kenneth-Grahame/dp/1846071178