Other editions of book The Water Babies

When Tom, a young chimney sweep, falls into a river and drowns, he is transformed from a 12-year-old boy who has known nothing but brutality and poverty into a "water-baby." In an underwater world surrounded by fairies, insects and water nymphs, he soon discovers a new life of adventure and excitement. Gloriously illustrated by Mabel Lucie Attwell, Charles Kingsley's The Water-Babies is a truly special story to treasure.

ONCE upon a time there was a little chimney-sweep, and his name was Tom. That is a short name, and you have heard it before, so you will not have much trouble in remembering it. He lived in a great town in the North country, where there were plenty of chimneys to sweep, and plenty of money for Tom to earn and his master to spend. He could not read nor write, and did not care to do either; and he never washed himself, for there was no water up the court where he lived. He had never been taught to say his prayers.

The Water-Babies, A Fairy Tale for a Land Baby is a children's novel by the Reverend Charles Kingsley. Written in 1862-1863 as a serial for Macmillan's Magazine, it was first published in its entirety in 1863. The book was extremely popular during its day, and was a mainstay of children's literature through the 1920s. The protagonist is Tom, a young chimney sweep, who falls into a river after encountering an upper-class girl named Ellie and being chased out of her house. There he dies and is transformed into a "water baby", as he is told by a caddis fly - an insect that sheds its skin - and begins his moral education. The story is thematically concerned with Christian redemption, though Kingsley also uses the book to argue that England treats its poor badly, and to question child labour, among other themes.

The Water-Babiesby Charles Kingsley The Water-Babies, A Fairy Tale for a Land Baby is a children's novel by the Reverend Charles Kingsley. Written in 1862-1863 as a serial for Macmillan's Magazine, it was first published in its entirety in 1863. The book was extremely popular during its day, and was a mainstay of children's literature through the 1920s.The protagonist is Tom, a young chimney sweep, who falls into a river after encountering an upper-class girl named Ellie and being chased out of her…

Once upon a time there was a little chimney-sweep, and his name was Tom. That is a short name, and you have heard it before, so you will not have much trouble in remembering it. He lived in a great town in the North country, where there were plenty of chimneys to sweep, and plenty of money for Tom to earn and his master to spend. He could not read nor write, and did not care to do either; and he never washed himself, for there was no water up the court where he lived. He had never been taught to say his prayers. He never had heard of God, or of Christ, except in words which you never have heard, and which it would have been well if he had never heard.

The Water-Babies, A Fairy Tale for a Land Baby is a children's novel by the Reverend Charles Kingsley. Written in 1862-1863 as a serial for Macmillan's Magazine, it was first published in its entirety in 1863. The book was extremely popular during its day, and was a mainstay of children's literature through the 1920s. In the style of Victorian-era novels, The Water-Babies is a didactic moral fable. Neither at the time it was published, nor certainly in the present day, have most readers realised that the book had been intended in part as both a satire and as a serious critique of the closed-minded approaches of many scientists of the day.

The Water Babies can be read on many levels. It is a children's story that has proved incredibly popular with young minds since its first publication in book form in 1863. It is also a moral fable, with many warnings of dire consequences for wayward youngsters, admonitions to live a good life and even to wash in cold water, "like a good Englishman". But within its forthright prose Reverend Kingsley has managed to insert his own critique on the evils of child labour and, (as one of the few Churchmen to support Charles Darwin's theory of evolution), an abhorrence of the small-minded scientists of his day.