Wind in The Willows Revisited

A few weeks back we got our exciting new book shipment for the next term. I didn't tell Grace this was arriving as the books are stored where she can look through a number of them, and I didn't want her to peek at the pictures and spoil it for herself.

So very stealthily, I slipped The Wind in the Willows on the shelf. There is a story behind this and the stealth. About 5 months ago, I picked up a beautifully illustrated copy from the library. Almost every page is done is lovely watercolors. I thought Grace and I would read it together, but I had never read the story myself, and I had no idea at the time just how complicated the language would be. I found myself struggling, even though Grace wanted to keep reading. We probably got three chapters in and after seeing that this book was also in Ambleside's Year 2 reading, I thought it might be best if we held off and took it back to the library.

Grace was NOT happy with me when it came time to return books. We have never stopped a book in the middle, and this was disturbing to her. But I went ahead and returned it (feeling bad) but thinking she would quickly get over it. She never mentioned it again...

Until the same version of the book was discovered in her own playroom/schoolroom, quietly waiting for it's pages to be cracked open for the first time. With a squeal of delight she came running in the room beaming, and said, "Mom! Mom!!! What did you do? What did you do??? Did you GET this!?" When I told her she would be reading it next term, she jumped up and down with glee going on and on about how she couldn't wait - how she loved this book. Did she really get that much out of it before?

I think she did.