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Tom the Chimney-Sweep

From The Water-Babies, by Charles Kingsley

This reader is adapted from The Water-Babies: A Fairy Tale for a Land-Baby by Charles Kingsley, first published in 1863. The story begins with Tom, a poor chimney-sweep who has never known kindness or cleanliness. When he stumbles into a beautiful room at a grand house and sees himself in a mirror for the first time, he discovers he is dirty—and everything changes. This text reflects its era; a few period terms have been modernised. Kingsley wrote the tale to draw attention to the hard lives of climbing-boys and to awaken wonder at transformation and redemption.

Band

Yellow · Emerging readersTypical starting range: ages 6–8

Length

medium · about 560 words in 6 sections · 4 pictures

Source

The Water-Babies: A Fairy Tale for a Land-Baby, Charles Kingsley

First published

see the About page in the reader

Regions

Canada · United States

Included formats

• · Web reader and PDF
• · EPUB for e-readers
• · Home-print sheet
• · Folded booklet
• · Binder edition (8.5 × 11)
• · Worksheet
• · Quick Check (8 questions) with answer key
• · Read-aloud script
• · Colouring page
• · Teacher’s Edition (members)

Readers are engineered from the original public-domain text with AI under HummingRead’s published canon and Content Philosophy, checked by automated audit and sampled by a person. Pictures are made with AI to HummingRead’s brief for each story. How a reader is made.

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