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Cover of The Wind in the Willows

The Wind in the Willows

Classic Adventure Animal Lead

About

A small mole abandons his spring-cleaning, leaves his burrow for the first time, and stumbles onto a river he never knew existed. There he meets a sleek Water Rat, a wise Badger, and a comically impulsive Toad. So begins a year of riverbank picnics, snowy wild woods, and the kind of friendship that lasts forever.

Kenneth Grahame
Kenneth Grahame
Kenneth Grahame worked at the Bank of England by day. By night he made up bedtime stories for his son about a Mole, a Rat, a Badger, and an accident-prone Toad. Teddy Roosevelt was a fan.
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Episodes

1. The River Bank
Spring sunshine reaches Mole's underground burrow and pulls him up into the daylight for the first time. On the open meadow he meets a sleek Water Rat in a striped jersey, and a long happy day on the river begins. Picnic basket, boats, and a whole new world above ground.
~4,781 words
2. The Wild Wood
Curious about the gruff old Badger he keeps hearing about, Mole walks alone into the Wild Wood one snowy afternoon. The dark trees close in around him, narrow eyes watch from every hollow, and Rat must come into the wood to find him before nightfall.
~4,812 words
3. Dulce Domum
On a snowy walk home, Mole catches the faint, familiar smell of his own old burrow and is overcome with longing. With Rat's help he finds the door of Mole End and rediscovers the small home he once left behind, just in time for an unexpected Christmas visit.
~3,056 words
4. Mr. Toad
A new motor-car has roared past Toad on the high road, and now nothing else will do. Rat, Mole, and Badger try to keep their friend out of trouble, but Toad's passion for shiny dangerous things will land him in a courtroom and then a prison cell.
~2,944 words
5. Toad's Adventures
Locked deep in a damp dungeon for his motor-car crimes, Toad is sure his life is over. But the jailer's kind-hearted daughter has a cousin who washes laundry at the castle, and a bold idea about a borrowed cotton dress could see Toad past the sentries by morning.
~3,235 words
6. The Return of Toad
Toad's wild flight home leads him at last back to the river. There he learns that while he was in prison, the weasels and ferrets of the Wild Wood have taken over Toad Hall, and his three best friends are planning a daring midnight raid to take it back.
~6,472 words
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