It's not that The Wind in the Willows isn't good; it's just that it's not what I expected. I was expecting something a little more like Mr. Toad's Wild Ride from Disneyland than a book that reads more like Winnie the Pooh. So far all we've seen Toad do is drive his carriage into a ditch and become obsessed with cars. The story is more about Mole at this point, as a new member of the riverside community.
The picture of toad hypnotized by a motercar was more what I was expecting. When I was little we had that movie and I used to watch it over and over. I guess five chapters into the book I would have expected to see toad a little more. But to be fair, we did just meet Badger.
I may do a little snooping to find out why Grahame wrote this book. For this book, I'm having a hard time believing he just decided to write a random book about some animals who live near a river. There are already several mentions of Badger hating society, and toad being obsessed with the latest greatest invention. Additionally, Mole is innocent and knows hardly anything about life on the river. There's something going on in that, I just don't know enough about the historical context of the book. I'll have to look into that a little bit.
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