I've read a few of these "Classic" children's book in the last couple of years and in my opinion this one has been the best. The descriptions are beautiful, the characters are well known and the plot/adventures were a joy to read. The setting is one of the best, the river bank, not too far from where I live, I've spent a few times drifting in a boat like Ratty. I would rate this 5 stars....Reading this to my daughter I would give it 3 stars (averaging into 4 stars). I don't think the book works well as something to read to young kids, there are very long passages describing scenery, I could see my daughter's attention starting to drift at times. There are a lot of big words in this book and she picked up on all of them, I had to get the dictionary out for a couple of them. Overall we both really enjoyed it and both adults and kids should read this book.

Best part of the book? Singing Toad's songs, they were fun.