I don’t like abridged books, as a rule. Many abridged classics just don’t work because the emotional content is so hard to edit or omit. Plus what often makes them resonate is the language. Watering down the vocabularly may increase understanding of individual sentences, but loses the overall power.
But I enjoyed reading this abridged version of Kenneth (Wind in the Willows) Grahame with E. The story moves along at a neat pace. The vocabularly feels of its time without being impenetrable and – of course – Inga Moore’s work is well up to its usual standard. In fact this book contains some of her best illustartions. She does a beautiful job of capturing unspoilt England drowsing in the summertime – dreamlike for a ‘fairytale’ book involving knights and dragons - but not sentimental. And it feels as if she’s really enjoyed doing this book.
It certainly feels like a book designed to read out loud to a preschooler at the far end of the age range, or – as in our case – a child who can read but still enjoys being read to. It’s a book that looks at first glance as if it belongs in the toddler book boxes in the library, but is probably too long and too dense for most of the littlies. It would take anywhere between 2 and seven readings to get through it. I’d never have found it for E if I hadn’t been looking for books for B as well. Some older kids might balk and what looks like a ‘baby book’. thankfully, E has no such hang-ups!
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