Short summary of the story
A mole who is alien to the outside world goes off wandering one day and meets a rat by a river, the rat invites the mole into his boat which the mole has never seen before and experiences being on a boat, they go on boat trips together and become friends. They both come across a toad at the toad hall, they start talking and toad tells them his passion for his caravan. Toad persuades the mole and rat to join him on the caravan trip. During the trip a motor car causes the caravan to crash into a ditch this leads onto toad ending his desire for caravans to be replaced for motor cars, he then buys himself a motor car.
Mole wants to meet badger because he is a respected character but rat tells mole badger doesn't like visitors and tells mole to be patient and wait for badger to visit him instead. Mole ignores rats words and goes exploring for him in the wild wood, he gets lost and see's scary faces in the woods so he panic an hides in the root of a tree. Rat notices mole has gone missing goes to look for him by following his tracks whilst equipped with a pistol and stick, which he then finds him in the end. They both attempt to find their way home and luckily find badgers doorstep, badger comes and greets them both into his home and treats them to hot food and dry clothes. Rat and Mole tell Badger that toad is a crazy driver and has crashed 6 cars and been in hospital 3 times and spent fortunes on fines. They come up with a plan for when spring comes to protect toad from hurting himself in the future.
Spring comes, Badger goes to visit Rat and Mole to sort out what they are going to do about Toad's madness, they all visit him and badger attempts to talk him out of his behaviour. The 3 of them put Toad under house arrest; guarding the premises until toad changes his mind. Toad acts as if he is ill and tricks Rat, he escapes and steals a car driving like a madman again and finally gets caught by the police, he is then sent to prison for 20 years. Badger and Mole are angry at Rat for being fooled but are content that they don't need to waste any more of their summer guarding Toad. But they live in toads hall in the mean time hoping toad might return. Toad in prison gains sympathy off the jailers daughter who helps Toad escape disguised as a washerwoman. Toad is now without money and only has clothes as his possession, he is being pursued by the police and is disguised as a washerwoman still. Toad comes across a barge, the barge owner offers toad a lift in exchange for toads services as a washerwoman. Toad botches the was and gets into a fight with the barge woman who throws toad into the canal after toad steals the horse which then sells onto a gypsy. Toad flags down a passing car which happens to be the exact same car he stole earlier. The car owner doesn't recognise toad permits toads to drive the car, once toad is in the car he is repossessed by his former behaviour of driving like a nutter which catches the identity of him to the cars owner who try to seize him. Later on this causes an accident which toads flees from once again whilst being pursued by the police he accidentally runs into a river which carries him luckily to the house of Rat. Rat informs toad that toad hall has been taken over by weasels, stoats and ferrets from the wild wood which drove out badger and mole who were staying there. Toad is upset by the news but realises what good friends he has and how badly he has behaved. Badger comes in and announces that he knows a secret tunnel into toad hall through which the enemies can be attacked.
Rat, Mole and Toad enter though the tunnel and attack the weasels who are holding a party, whilst honouring their leader. They manages to drive the intruders away and Toad holds a banquet to mark his return, he behaves quietly and humbly. He makes up for his wrong doings by compensating those who he had wronged and the friends live out their live happily ever after.
Character summary
Ratty: Rat is a relaxed and friendly character. He loves the river and is stubborn when it comes to doing something else other than his riverside style.
Mole: Mole is a home loving character and is new to the outside world, the adventure adapts him as a person to be more challenging.
Toad: Toad is rich and spoiled. A mad driver and easily prone to obsessions which he then drops when he is bored of them. He is a criminal as he steals a car and drives dangerously causing accidents but he is the main message of the book, he is the heart of the story as the adventure of the animas is all because of toad.
Badger: Badger is the old wise character. He is influential for the friends and comes up with the smart plan of getting toads hall back. He is brave and a skilled fighter.
Strong points from the book
- The power of true friendship
- Kindess and loyalty
- Leisure, in the book the characters are doing lots of leisure on the adventure for example the boat ride, the hunt for badger, toad on the run from the police, fighting etc.
- One big adventure
Scenes from the book for potential ideas
From researching the story of this book i think it is a very hard challenge of designing a book cover for it, i have looked at existing book covers and there is so many of them which are all similar. The majority of them focus on the theme of friendship with a different scene setting in the background, majority are either in the woods or by the river. I want my design to avoid being another cliche, I want to do something different. I am thinking of basing my design around the dark side of the book, the scene where rat and mole are in the scary woods with all the evil eyes glaring at them in the background. This idea is the one thats in the back of mind of doing. I also want my design to be a scene from the book as it creates more focus for me to come up with a more variety of ideas surrounding one setting which I think will make my design better. This is a list of scenes I think were intresting and could become potential bases for designs:
- The tunnels scene where all 4 characters are going through the tunnel to reach toad hall of the weasels. I was thinking maybe the front cover have the four characters then on the back page have toad hall and the weasels with the tunnel connecting both them going over the spine of the book
- The wild wood scene where mole is lost and scared with the evil eyes glaring at him from the bushes and rat is looking for him. The back page could have the scene stretched out with badger on the back page.
- Boat scene where rat and mole are on the boat along the river, even though this has been done many times it it is quite iconic in the book as it is the first step of the journey in the book.
- In badgers house where rat and mole are in his lounge meeting him for the first time.
- Cold snowy wild wood with rat and mole desperately looking for shelter.
- Toad hall scene where all four characters are together
- Toad in the dungeon on his own with light shining through the window on him
Existing book covers
I really like this book cover, mainly because of the colours and setting of the design. The night time colours make this cover attractive, I like the stars at the top of the book and how the sky blends in with the green nature of the plants and trees. The white text over it works well as it goes well with the white stars in the background, the font is nice as well, with the variation of sizes with 'WIND' and 'WILLOWS' much larger and capitalised. I like the style of 'the' and 'in the' being smaller and laid out differently, it creates balance and looks unique. This book cover would answer the brief I have to design for in that it stands out. It is very detailed and looks welcoming. The characters on the front have been emphasised as the focal point by being in brighter coloured clothes and having a glowing shine behind them which I think is really effective. The back cover I like how the moon is the text box for the blurb it contrasts well to the maroon coloured font on top of it. I also like how the front cover carrys onto the back cover, I want to replicate that style in my own design.
This book cover I don't really like. Mainly because of the artist style I think. It looks like it has been painted. I really dislike the type face the designer has used, it looks so simple in having just a serif font in the same size squished in between those two bushes, the cover doesn't stand out in my opinion, the vibrant colours are the only reason this cover would ever catch a persons eye in a book shop. I also think the characters in the boat is too big, if it was smaller I reckon the design would benefit more. The design just looks squashed. The back page I like because its relaxing and calm, it conveys the main message of the book of friendship whats important. I think looking at this book you would think it is for a very young child, whereas in the one book cover above it the target audience is probably a bit more older for a child just from how detailed and the style of artwork it is in. But again in this book cover the design flows from the front to back which i admire.
This book cover is nice and i like it. The illustrations are nicely made and bring out the characters personalities by how they are dressed. I like the detailed old styled theme to it, it looks natural and a peaceful book. It conveys the meaning of the book of true friendship by having all the characters on the cover and in the location of the river which is a main aspect of the book. The text in the middle and centred creates a nice balance, and the font is in a unique natural looking serif font which is nice.
I tried searching book covers for this book what avoid the same old cliche, I found this one which is based on a scene when rat and mole find badgers house in the wild wood. Its a pretty basic book cover, I like the colours it uses, the brown symbolising nature, and matching the browns in the illustration below. I think its quite boring though, it wouldn't catch my eye in a book shop the colours are dull for eye grabbing. The type stands out well on the brown background to identify what the book is easily which is the plus for this book cover.
Illustrations similar to my proposed design
I found this image on the internet, it isn't a book cover but it is a sort of poster conveying the wild wood, it is very similar to what i want my front cover to look like. Mole running scared in the forest with evil eyes in the trees. Theres no snow in this image but there is in the actual story which is a bit weird.
This is a screen shot of the scene from one of the movies, the spikey branches are what I want to use in my design, giving it that creepy mysterious mood.
Heres another screenshot this time of the evil eyes in the darkness. This influences my choice of style colours and illustrations of how i am going to approach mine, I'm not going to show any slight silhouette of animals, just the yellow eyes.
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