The book ends with the caveat that it is only a fairy tale, and the reader is to believe none of it, "even if it is true". The real word is escape because Tom gets turned into a Waterbaby and goes on an adventure of discovery. He sees things that many though were mere fictions and in the process learns a little about life in the process. And that’s the key here, learning. This is a children’s book and all children’s books are full of didacticism of some variety. This one is full of Christian dogma and Victorian world values. Tom gets to experience the meaning of life, at least from the perspective of Kingsley and the imperialistic attitude that went with him.

folks have a great liking for those poor little efts. They never did anybody any harm, or could if they When Tom has "everything that he could want or wish," the reader is warned that sometimes this does bad things to people: "Indeed, it sometimes makes them naughty, as it has made the people in America". Murderous crows that do whatever they like are described as being like "American citizens of the new school". [5] Fuera bromas, la verdad es que se percibe que el sinsentido de Kingsley procedía de poemitas infantiles tontos y canciones de cuna con tintes grotescos y misteriosos. Leyendo Los niños del agua podemos observar numerosos ejemplos de poemas, tanto autoría de Kingsley como de otros autores, que refuerzan la teoría de que este tipo de textos fueron una influencia decisiva en la historia y en su trabajo artístico. Dear Grandpater – Have you seen a Waterbaby? Did you put it in a bottle? Did it wonder if it could get out? Could I see it some day? – Your loving Julian. [12]I have no idea what edition I read as a child, but I do know that I harbor huge nostalgia about the book's weird adventures and pen and ink illustrations. Every time I see the title at a used book sale, I reflect on my childhood. Donoghue, Denis (17 October 2013). " The Water-Babies: A fairy tale for a land-baby, by Charles Kingsley. The classic children's story is 150years old". The Irish Times . Retrieved 25 September 2016.

Kingsley, Charles (7 September 1998). The Water Babies (audio cassette). BBC Radio Collection. BBC Audiobooks. ISBN 978-0-563-55810-1. A BBC Radio4 full cast dramatisation.It's even horrific at times. A poor, exhausted Tom is led to a stream and transformed into a water-baby by the fairies, feverish and feeling he needs to wash himself to be clean. Mr Grimes is rescued from a fate in his afterlife, but the solution is just as bad if not worse. The fairies drive one kindhearted professor who didn't believe in him near insane. There's a very distasteful undercurrent even beyond the overt things. For good fairies, they do an awful lot of bad things. Charles Kingsley se vale de la historia de Tom, un crío victoriano obligado a trabajar como deshollinador desde una temprana edad para un tal Grimes, para narrar una historia infantil llena de moralejas pero sin moraleja (incomprensible, lo sé) y realizar diversas críticas sociales; la esclavitud infantil, el sistema educativo de la época, la teoría de la evolución de Charles Darwin y la racionalización del mundo fantástico llevada, según Kingsley, por la sociedad estadounidense. También subyace una simplona crítica hacia los irlandeses y el catolicismo, pero creo que esta última viene más por la profesión del propio Kingsley y su orgullo británico y temperamento flemático que por un odio real hacia los irlandeses y el catolicismo. How do you know that? Have you been there to see? And if you had been there to see, and had seen none, that would not prove that there were none... And no one has a right to say that no water babies exist till they have seen no water babies existing, which is quite a different thing, mind, from not seeing water babies. Tom is a young chimney sweep who, through a series of improbable events, becomes a water-baby and goes thorough all sorts of adventures, all of which have morals to teach, before becoming a creature of the land again, as a grown man. It is a Victorian moral fable and although it's stated that it's aimed at children, and has a fairly simplistic style, it is interspersed with philosophical tracts and concepts that would go right above the head of most children. Mrs. Doasyouwouldbedoneby (Κάνεαυτοπουθεσνασουκανουν), την Mrs. Bedonebyasyoudid (Πάθεαυτοπουεκανες), μια στρατιά από είδη ψαριών, πουλιών, οστρακόδερμων, αμφιβίων, πετρωμάτων, που πρέπει να έχεις ανοικτό ένα λεξικό ζωολογίας/γεωλογίας για να καταλάβεις τι είναι. Παράξενα επαγγέλματα όπως Δρ. Βλττσσγλς (Βάλτε τους σε γυάλες) καθηγητής νεκροβιονεοπαλαιουδροχθονανθρωποπιθηκολογίας