The Wind In The Willows Book Club

The Wind In The Willows by Kenneth Grahame has been a classic for children for more than a century. Readers will be charmed by the main characters Mole, Mr. Toad, Badger, and Ratty, and their adventures. I believe all ages would enjoy this story! I love it and so does my 12 year old. This book has a special place in my heart because it was my Dad’s favorite book when he was a child. He gifted this gorgeously illustrated copy to my oldest when he was younger and we re-read last month with our wild+free co-op for Book Club. The book was loved by all, and we had a lovely day by the creek to celebrate.

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This book club was on the smaller side for attendance, but it was still such a fun day! We met at one of my favorite spots- a creek on the Blue Ridge Parkway where the water is low and there are a couple picnic tables in the shade and a darling wood bridge. The theme for this book club was a picnic, like in the story. And we brought some of the foods mentioned in the book. Some books we have read with Book Club have barely any mention of food, so we have to get creative with our dishes to bring. This story is FULL of food and it was hard to pick which ones to bring!

For this book, my boys and I worked through two literature guides I found on Etsy. The main one we used was The Wind in the Willows Family Learning Guide – by HearthMagic. It was SO much fun! It is over 100 pages and is full of recipes, activities, outdoor adventure prompts, art appreciation, writing prompts… there was a lot and we just chose what worked for us. The other one we used was The Wind in the Willows Nature & Literature Study by LivImaginative and that had some really good pages for my preschooler. We also enjoyed learning about the animals and old motorcars.

The Wind In The Willows Book Club Food

• Sliced apples (or pears would be good)
• Ham
• Fried potatoes
• Pickles
• Baguette & jam
• Mixed nuts
• Cheese & crackers
• Small turkey wraps (these weren’t mentioned in the story, but are a yummy picnic food!)
• Vanilla bean cookies and chocolate for dessert (something I just grabbed from the store because I was craving something sweet)

I had planned on making a kid-friendly hot “mulled wine” but it was such a hot day, we stuck with juice boxes, sparkling water and sweet tea. I also was going to bring ginger beer, which is mentioned in the book, but didn’t think the kids would really like it anyways. If you read this book in the cooler months, tea and toast like Mr. Toad enjoys would be perfect, or that mulled wine. Hard-boiled eggs and Raspberry Fool for dessert would also be fun to add to the menu.

It was a simple menu, just like the meals mentioned in the book.

The decor was simple- a picnic basket, some cardstock characters from the book and a hand-drawn map of their world, both from the two Literature Guides I purchased off Etsy mentioned earlier.

The Activities

I printed off a few different coloring pages for the kids, but they were too busy playing in the creek, so they brought them home. We have Mr. Toad’s car, the caravan, and a maze for Mole.

I got this Wind In The Willows mini unit from Etsy (mentioned above) that had information on the animals in real life as well as motor cars during this time period. I slipped them, double-sided, into sleeve protectors and laid them on the table for the kids to look over.

The main activity was making aluminum foil boats. I just loved to see the creativity and different styles of boats these kids created! We had Viking long boats, canoes, yachts… it was great fun to see how long they could float down the creek, how they handled the rapids, and what the children put aboard their vessels. My son used some of the paper characters I had printed out as passengers for his boat, and even loaded up with snacks (trail mix) for the little critters, and made little tools and supplies for them aboard their ship. His imagination and creativity always amaze me!

Any hot day spent in the cold water of mountain creeks is a good one in my book. I think the kids had a blast, and I just cherish these book clubs spent with good friends.