"In this delightful dive into the bygone world of Kenneth Grahame's The Wind in the Willows staunch Mole, sociable Water Rat, severe Badger, and troublesome and ebullient Toad of Toad Hall are joined by a young mole lady, Beryl, and her dear friend, Rabbit. There are adventures, kidnappings, lost letters, and family secrets-lavishly illustrated throughout by award-winning artist Kathleen Jennings. Praise for Kij Johnson: "The Fox Woman immediately sets the author in the front rank of today's novelists."--Lloyd Alex-ander "Johnson has a singular vision and I'm going to be borrowing (stealing) from her." -Sherman Alexie "Johnson's language is beautiful, her descriptions of setting visceral, and her characters compellingly drawn." -Publishers Weekly (starred re-view) "Johnson would fit quite comfortably on a shelf with Karen Russell, Erin Morgen-stern and others who hover in the simultaneous state of being both "literary" and "fantasy" writ-ers." -Shelf Awareness Kij Johnson's stories have won the Sturgeon, …
"In this delightful dive into the bygone world of Kenneth Grahame's The Wind in the Willows staunch Mole, sociable Water Rat, severe Badger, and troublesome and ebullient Toad of Toad Hall are joined by a young mole lady, Beryl, and her dear friend, Rabbit. There are adventures, kidnappings, lost letters, and family secrets-lavishly illustrated throughout by award-winning artist Kathleen Jennings. Praise for Kij Johnson: "The Fox Woman immediately sets the author in the front rank of today's novelists."--Lloyd Alex-ander "Johnson has a singular vision and I'm going to be borrowing (stealing) from her." -Sherman Alexie "Johnson's language is beautiful, her descriptions of setting visceral, and her characters compellingly drawn." -Publishers Weekly (starred re-view) "Johnson would fit quite comfortably on a shelf with Karen Russell, Erin Morgen-stern and others who hover in the simultaneous state of being both "literary" and "fantasy" writ-ers." -Shelf Awareness Kij Johnson's stories have won the Sturgeon, World Fantasy, and Nebula awards. She has taught writing and has worked at Dark Horse, Microsoft, and Real Networks. She has run bookstores, worked as a radio announcer and engineer, edited cryptic crosswords, and waitressed in a strip bar. Kathleen Jennings was raised on fairytales in western Queensland. She trained as a lawyer and filled the margins of her notes with pen-and-ink illustrations. She has been nominated for the World Fantasy award and has received several Ditmar Awards. She lives in Brisbane, Australia"--
We finished "The River Bank" by Kij Johnson bythe end of 2020, which was so excellent and spot on for The Wind In The Willows we slowly savoured each chapter. She really hit on Grahame's style, and all our old friends, as well as new ones, are quite convincing and having plenty of fun in-between putting up with Toad's conceit. There is great back history for Moley, too. I wasn't sure I'd like that initially but I do now. Badger surprised me a bit at the end but it made sense from the environment he'd travelled to. And Ratty is splendid, as always! Otter was there too, yay.
This is perfectly lovely. It's the characters and setting from "The Wind in the Willows", plus two women, a very sensible mole who is an author, and a very flighty rabbit, who has Adventures. It casts a spell of glorious countryside. I loved it.
