Tom the Water-Baby
From The Water-Babies by Charles Kingsley
The Water-Babies was first published in 1863 by Charles Kingsley, an English clergyman and writer. It tells the story of Tom, a poor chimney-sweep who is transformed into a water-baby and learns about kindness, cleanliness and right and wrong. This text reflects its era; a few period terms have been modernised. Kingsley wrote the story to show that even the poorest and dirtiest child has worth and can be made clean and new—a message as true now as it was then.
- Band
- Yellow · Emerging readersTypical starting range: ages 6–8
- Length
- medium · about 529 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)
Lesson at a glance
- Reading
- about 9 minutes at this band
- Pause questions
- 2
- Words to Know
- 5
- Quick Check
- 8 questions, with the answer key
- Let’s Talk
- 3 questions for afterwards
- Worksheet
- questions, an activity and a drawing prompt
About 35 minutes with one story, all of it.
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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The same story
Other bands of this story
This story is ready now at the Yellow band only. Other bands can be made to order for members after launch.