[.ca] Puffin Classics Water Babies (ISBN 0140367365)

The Water Babies:
This book was a wonderful novel to read. It showed how little kids were treated durning this time period. Once the faries found Tom his life changed forever. The author explained how he started out as little boy and saying bad words to how he changed and in to a understanding boy. The book is a wonderful read because it shows what happens to others who don't know what it's like. Not all of this is true because it is a fairy tale. The author's one quote that stayed with me the most is "You're not supposed to belive all of this because it's a fairy tale even if you do believe. This is a powerful story and should be read to little children. It will show them that being bad is not the way to go. If kids learn tpo be nice when they are young then it can stop hatred and people being mean in future years.

Lesson for Life:
It was whilst reading the Waterbabies to my children that it dawned on me that the lessons to be learned from Mrs Be Done By As You Did and Mrs Do As You Would Be Done By had been a powerful guiding force. It is sad that more children today do not learn the underlying message.Perhaps our world would be a nicer place.

British Fairy Tale: Ahead Of Its Time:
The Water Babies is an excellent example of British Literature that should be promoted just as much as the works of Lewis Caroll or Dickens. Charles Kingsley's work was banned for quite a while. There is no question that this cleverly written fairy tale has a lot of hidden information to explore. Makes one wonder if one can still be an Anglican minister and promote evolution? Perhaps, one can. Mr. Kingsley has other wonderful works to explore and in addition, there is his niece, Mary Kingsley who wrote on Africa.

Amusing:
Not sparkling, but cute and charming, and a good book to read aloud to the littles as long as you don't mind defining the occasional word. The one peeve I had was the annoying and persistant habit the author has of calling the the reader "My dear little man". This is especial bothersome when the person reading it is fourteen and female.

A Book of Its Time:
Interesting that an original version of this book is extremely hard to come by. The abridged version, as mentioned by another reader/reviewer, omits crucial references to the racist and anti-Irish underpinnings of this "fairy tale." The book was basically written as a critique of anti-slavery, anti-abolitionist sentiments stirring in Britain regarding it's colonies, which were still - after the abolition of the slave trade in 1807 - encouraging the slavery and mistreatment of black people. Read the book, but tell the children the truth, please.