The Water Babies
By DINNERLADY
@lazydaizee (6735)
United Kingdom
September 4, 2021 4:53am CST
The Water Babies was first written in the 19th Century at a time when children were put to work from a very young age. This books tells the story of a young boy named Tom who was working as a chimney sweep.
Tom worked for a cruel master and he was badly treated and made to go up filthy chimneys and clean them. One day while cleaning the chimneys of a big house, Tom lost his way and was mistaken for a thief by a member of the household. So he quickly had to run away or else he would be badly punished. So he ran off and accidently fell into a stream.
While he was in the stream, he was rescued by fairies and they turned him into a Water Baby. While living as a Water Baby, Tom had many adventures and met lots of strange characters.
7 people like this
8 responses
@JudyEv (328664)
• Rockingham, Australia
8 Sep 21
@lazydaizee It's good to go back and read some of these old children's classics. As adults, we bring a lot more knowledge to the reading.
2 people like this
@lazydaizee (6735)
• United Kingdom
8 Sep 21
@JudyEv This is true and we then see another side to the story. As children, we see only the good bits but the scary characters seemed more scary. As an adult, most of the wicked characters just seem like characters who cannot cope with life and make things worse for others .
2 people like this
@lazydaizee (6735)
• United Kingdom
7 Sep 21
This was one of the fairy stories that I did not read as a child , so I decided to read it now. I probably understood it better by reading it now because I would not have known about Victorian child labour when I was a child, so I got a different view on the story.
2 people like this
@prashu228 (37525)
• India
4 Sep 21
Interesting ..Hope your weekend started on good note
2 people like this
@lazydaizee (6735)
• United Kingdom
29 Sep 21
Thank you, do you think you will read it in the future?
1 person likes this
@crobyghost (178)
• United States
27 Sep 21
I watched the movie as a young child it was fantastic, I can only imagine what the book was like.
1 person likes this
@lazydaizee (6735)
• United Kingdom
28 Sep 21
I have not seen the movie yet, but I will look out for it in the future.
@Fleura (29269)
• United Kingdom
12 Sep 21
I'm surprised you didn't know about child labour, I thought everyone knew children used to get sent up chimneys etc. I remember at primary school learning about the Earl of Shaftesbury and his work to reform the laws on child labour.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_Ashley-Cooper,_7th_Earl_of_Shaftesbury
1 person likes this
@Fleura (29269)
• United Kingdom
19 Sep 21
@lazydaizee Did you read the bit about the lunacy laws? That's pretty shocking - and it isn't really all that long ago.
@lazydaizee (6735)
• United Kingdom
19 Sep 21
I think I did learn about this at secondary school, it was so long ago that I forgot. Thanks for the link.
1 person likes this
@Fleura (29269)
• United Kingdom
12 Sep 21
I loved this story as a child. He falls into the water and gets mistaken for a newt (eft) then he meets the lovely 'Mrs Doasyouwouldbedoneby' and the nasty 'Mrs Bedonebyasyoudid'. Funnily enough when I tried to read it again in my 20s I found it unbearably preachy.
1 person likes this
@lazydaizee (6735)
• United Kingdom
19 Sep 21
Lovely names for these characters. I found it a bit preachy too. I think this was done on purpose to teach children to do good things.
1 person likes this
