Listen free for 30 days
Listen with offer
-
The Water Babies
- Narrated by: Bernard Cribbins
- Length: 1 hr and 11 mins
Failed to add items
Add to basket failed.
Add to wishlist failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
£0.00 for first 30 days
The Water Babies
Buy Now for £6.99
No valid payment method on file.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Summary
Bernard Cribbins reads Charles Kingsley's much-loved tale about a little chimney-sweep who is turned into a water baby. Tom the chimney-sweep has a hard life. He is beaten by his master, the cruel Mr Grimes, and forced to climb up dark flues where he bruises his knees and elbows and gets soot in his eyes. He is always hungry, for there is never enough to eat, and always dirty, as there is nowhere for him to wash. One day, he is so tired from sweeping flues that he comes down the wrong chimney and lands in the bedroom of a beautiful young girl, where he is mistaken for a thief and runs away. He falls asleep near a river - and when he wakes up, the fairies have transformed him into a water-baby. He loves his new life swimming in the stream and having adventures, but he has no one to play with. So he sets off on a journey to the sea, to find the other water babies.
Listeners also enjoyed...
What listeners say about The Water Babies
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars
-
Story5 out of 5 stars
- Mrs K
- 21-07-22
Good book
Very well read by Bernard Cribbins, he kept the shortened version of the book interesting.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars
-
Story4 out of 5 stars
- Yvonne
- 09-11-24
Beautifully read
Abridged version lost very little of the story, keeping in some lovely lines. A great accompaniment to my journey.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall2 out of 5 stars
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars
-
Story2 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 05-12-22
Good narration, but the story was silly
In my opinion the story tried to be full of meaning and morals but I think was rather weak. Sorry. The narration was good though.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall2 out of 5 stars
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars
-
Story1 out of 5 stars
- C. Longworth
- 10-03-24
Not one for the kids
It seems the greatest fans of this story are adults who vaguely remember it from their youth. The story does not stand up by itself as frankly it’s not well-written and lacks both depth or description. Neither my primary-school-aged children, nor I could follow Kingsley’s meandering narrative and after an hour we still had no clear idea what a water baby was. Perhaps we needed to research a Victorian world-view before starting?! It was like listening to someone describing a dream with some very strange twists of reality and time. We struggled to finish it, not for us.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!