“Wind in the Willows” - Kenneth Grahame

🐸 Kenneth Grahame is a uniquely gifted storyteller whose classic, WIW, has charmed generations of children and adults alike. The children are entranced by his lively woodland creatures, and the adults appreciate the layer pertaining to longing for adventure, finding blissful contentment, or simply appreciating a summer day. 

🐸 I’ve read WIW out loud to each of my 3 children. What’s interesting, is that even though they’ve each heard the story before, my older boys would still engage with it while I was reading it with their little brother - particularly the parts about that bonkers, Mr. Toad. During the Toad car theft scene, my teen smiled knowingly at his little brother.

🐸 IMO, the benefits to children of hearing Kenneth Grahame’s lyrical prose read to them out loud cannot be overstated. Little ears might not understand all of the words used, but I am a firm believer that simply hearing them is beneficial. Even if this means that you have to pause often to explain what something means, I think this teaches children how to use context clues. Furthermore, in this day and age of “skibidi riz toilet” we absolutely need to hear and read elevated English prose.