The Water Babies by Charles Kingsley

I must have been a genius as a kid - evidence that brains degrade with time - because I read this book as a youngster. I found it tougher going as an adult. It's a morality tale of the first order, unsurprising of course given its age. Tom the chimney sweep falls into the river and becomes a water baby, with a wonderful little frill of gills round his neck. He has adventures, learns to be kind to others and finally meets up again with Ellie, the white lady whose chimney he had been cleaning when he was frightened and ran away to fall in the river. Seeking to please her he takes on one last challenge, to find and forgive Grimes his master. He does and receives his heavenly reward – or something like that - Sundays in paradise, which seems to mean returning to earth. It's interesting from a historical perspective, the values children were taught, and so forth. For my money the best thing about it was the gills - what I wouldn't give for a set of those pretty frilly things round my neck!