Wind in the Willows Christmas, A (L

Michael Hague illustrated the complete text of Kenneth Grahame's The Wind in the Willows nearly twenty years ago and has since illustrated more than twenty children's classics, including editions of The Wizard of Oz and The Velveteen Rabbit. He lives in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

Gr. 3-5, younger for reading aloud. Readers of The Wind in the Willows will remember the Christmas chapter "Dulce Domum," here slightly abridged and presented as a separate book. Rat and Mole are walking hurriedly through a forest one snowy night when a half-forgotten scent leads Mole down a tunnel to his former home. Field mice arrive as carolers, who join the pair for a merry Christmas Eve at Mole End. Most of the text is left unchanged; a note mentions the five paragraphs that were shortened. Though readers already familiar with Rat and Mole will find the full tale's essential poignancy more resonant, the abridgment respects the original text, and the story works as a separate book. Hague contributes a series of gouache paintings, which are warm in color, vivid in action, and full of lively details. A handsome Christmas book, this may inspire some children to read The Wind in the Willows . Carolyn Phelan
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