Water child

Author: Charles Kingsley Yu Yueyang Yang Lei Illustrations
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-01-01
Features: Tom is a young boy who sweeps chimneys and has never washed his face. One day, on the way to sweep a chimney, he encounters an Irish woman who turns away after saying something strange. Subsequently, strange things begin to happen one after another:
Act 1, Tom gets lost in the chimney, stunned by the snow-white house and the angelic little girl before him.
Act 2, half-asleep and half-awake, Tom chants "I must be clean" and jumps into a clear stream, transforming into a graceful water child.
Act 3, just as he escapes a fishing net, he falls into a cage. The unlucky Tom gets a lucky break, finally finds his companions, and lives a happy life as a water child.
Act 4, the mischievous Tom still has many bad habits—pranks, stealing snacks—and the immortals watch him all the time. Thus, new tests unfold one after another.
Water Children is the only fairy tale Charles Kingsley wrote about children. Born in England in 1819, he became a teacher after graduating from the University of Cambridge. He was a prolific historian, naturalist, sociologist, novelist, and poet. Sensitive by nature, hardworking, compassionate, and full of justice, he often criticized social ills with a powerful pen. The Illustrated Phonics Edition of World Literature Classics now presented is a series of books meticulously compiled and illustrated, specially dedicated to young readers. Its illustrated format and standardized phonetic annotations that meet primary school teaching standards fully meet the reading needs of elementary school students.