Description: Kenneth Grahame's mother died when he was five, and his alcoholic father sent him and his siblings to live in England with their grandmother. Though not actually an orphan, Grahame knew what it was like to be reared by adults other than one's parents. Out of that experience came the observations that made The Golden Age (1895) and Dream Days (1898) immediate favorites. The sharp depiction of five bright orphans forced to cope with inept adults was a welcome antidote to the sentimentality of most Victorian fiction for children. Grahame's son Alistair was born in 1900, and Grahame amused him with stories about badgers, moles, and toads. Continued in letters, the stories became the outline for The Wind in the Willows (1908). Despite its initially cool reception, the novel went on to become immensely popular, helped by A. A. Milne's stage adaptation (Toad of Toad Hall, 1929). Like Alice in Wonderland and Peter Pan, it is a children's classic that perhaps appeals even more to adults.

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