The Wind in the Willows is the only thing I know by Grahame, and of course I love it (though it used to absolutely terrify me as a child for some reason), so I was interested to read something else by him. I found these stories somehow both bland and saccharine; they are fun and well-written, but lacking in invention, and just too endearing and cute. There are dark overtones in some of the stories, such as the death of a servant's sweetheart, that children are unable to comprehend, and those were the best parts, I thought. Grahame is fantastic at getting children's mentality and interests, it made me remember how I used to feel and think when I was younger, but somehow this book sort of failed to capture and hold my interest as much as other children's books have. One of the stories is about a circus, which I found really bothersome, since I've always been scared to circuses and clowns, and have no idea how people can enjoy them. Even though some of the characters are girls, there seems to be a lot of mocking of women going on, portraying them as gossipy, annoying, and a burden on men. My favourite story was probably 'Its Walls Were as of Jasper', which is about imagining stories for paintings and illustrations in books, it was both inventive and extremely accurate in portraying a child's world.
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