Both my kids love the Wind in the Willows.  We have an audio copy of the book and I have taken out a few different versions of the story from our local library for the kids to read.  They love the characters especially Mr Toad because he is always getting himself into trouble and although he is a bit naughty he is quite a character.  On one of my many web searches for reading books for the kids I saw a new series called the New Adventures of Mr Toad (think there are currently 3 books in this series) and I was looking at the books for possibly readers for my son when Oxford University Press contacted me and asked if we would be interested in reviewing the latest one – No big surprise I said YES.

The story is written by Tom Moorhouse and it does not include all the old characters from the Wind in the Willows but it is based on life along the river and the chaos that is caused by Mr Toad and his “adventures”.  The book we read appears to be the third in the series but you can easily read it as a stand alone story (we did).

In this story Mr Toad causes chaos by driving his fancy new boat inconsiderately around the river while he follows a Treasure Hunt.

The Treasure Hunt has been created by the naughty weasels as a way of keeping Mr Toad away from Toad Hall so they can use his dock to load logs which they are cutting down illegally.

It is a light heart, entertaining story, nothing scary or dark in it.  The story is well written and would be suitable as both bed time reading for younger kids and independent reading for younger readers who are just starting to read chapter books.  The books itself is 156 pages long but the font is a good size and the chapters are not too long, which together with the easy writing style really makes it a great started chapter book. (I mention font size because my son recently took a book out the library where the font was way too small and he got very frustrated with trying to read the book.)

I also really liked the fact that they introduce all the characters in the beginning of the book and that they include a bit about Kenneth Grahame (the author of the Wind in the Willows) at the end of the book.  Nice extras which just add to the story.

My son recommends the book.  He really enjoyed reading about the “mischievous Mr Toad” and is keen to read the other books in the series (he is 7 years old).

The series currently contains 4 books.  The first two are

The New Adventures of Mr Toad: Toad Hall in Lockdown

The New Adventures of Mr Toad: A Race for Toad Hall

followed by

The New Adventures of Mr Toad: Toad in Troubled Waters

and to be released in the summer

The New Adventures of Mr Toad: Operation Toad!

As I mentioned above we have only read Toad in Troubled Waters but we are definitely going to get copies of the others to see what else Mr Toad and his friends get up to.

As I mentioned above Oxford University Press send us a copy of the Book.  All opinions expressed are mine and my son’s.

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