The youngest son of our next door neighbour in France, Lenny (after Lenny Kravitz) has his birthday in February. Just before we came back this last time to the UK, we gave him a copy of Bob the Builder, in English. Matteo, the older brother who is ten has been learning English at our village school for a few years. Lenny is just starting, so the two have been reading Bob the Builder together.
We had an email from their mother Isabelle a couple of days ago. Lenny has fallen in love with his Bob the Builder book and insists on sleeping with it. If told ' no you can't', Lenny starts wailing. He has a unique wail, which steadily winds-up until finally at full throttle, Lenny achieves air raid siren quality. But it doesn't last long. The family have a neat way of dealing with him. Lenny is very ticklish and has learnt that it's impossible to wail effectively and laugh at the same time.
I have a book that was given to me when I was more or less the same age as Lenny is now, by my Aunt Hester, who like the rest of the family lived in Henley. She was for a long time, the local and much-loved school teacher. Her gift to me was The Wind in the Willows or in French, Le Vent dans les Saules. I don't know what Aunt Hester would have made of my primary school English teacher, the formidable Mrs Chester. I can see her clearly in my mind's eye - sturdily built, 5'5" (1m65) and shrinking, very short wavy white hair and probably in her late 60s. Mrs Chester had asked us each to bring in a favourite classic novel and to find a short passage from it so that if she called our name, we could read out loud to the rest of the class. I took along The Wind in the Willows and was immediately informed that this book was not a classic. Guess who didn't get to read!
Regardless of whether The Wind in the Willows is or isn't a classic, I always loved the story and continue to read it once a year as it gets close to Christmas. There are wonderful moments in it, funny, scary, poignant and joyful.
I'm clearly attached to it and probably will remain so.
But not enough to want to sleep with it.
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