Kenneth Grahame's unjustly neglected collections of vignettes, reminiscences, and inventions capture the ingenuities of a family of children — three boys and two girls — who live magnanimous lives nourished by the secret expeditions and private games they share. Written in the last few years of the 19th century, as Grahame looked back fondly at his own childhood, these sketches of growing up are poised artfully between two states of consciousness — that of a child protagonist and that of a remembering adult — and so manage to evoke both the active energies of youth and the nostalgic tenderness of reflection. This book, and a companion volume entitled The Golden Age, remain beguiling today. While their language is sophisticated, confident reader of ten and up might easily find themselves caught in the web of story the author weaves; older readers have no excuse not to revel in these marvelous volumes.
