Bedtime Read-Aloud Recommendation: The Water Horse

It was Kristie who found it. It was lying just above the high-tide mark, a squarish package-shaped object, the color of seaweed with a long tendril sticking out from each of its four corners.

It was exactly the shape, in face, of the mermaids' purses, the little horny egg capsules of the dogfish, that were commonly washed up on the beach. But this one was the size of a large cookie tin!

One morning young Kristie finds a mysterious egg on the beach. It's too big to be a fish egg -- what could it be? She takes it home and hides it in her bathtub. The next morning, she and her brother Angus find a tiny little creature with the body reminiscent of a turtle and a head similar to a horse happily swimming around their tub. And so begins the story of "The Water Horse."

Now that we've ventured beyond picture books, our search continues for entertaining, more complex bedtime stories that an almost 5-year-old can enjoy. Our son’s first non-picture nighttime read was "The Water Horse" by Dick King-Smith.

The story is an entertaining read with a simple plot that most 5-9 year olds will enjoy. "The Water Horse" gives readers a fun explanation of how the Loch Ness Monster came to be. Even though the book centers on the Loch Ness Monster, there is nothing frightening about it. The book tells of how Kristie, her brother Angus and the rest of her family find the egg, see it hatch, move it from their bathtub to their pond, from their pond to a small loch and from there, use a cattle truck to transport it to an even bigger loch. That’s pretty much it, but there is so much detail and vivid language, your children will certainly be intrigued.

Just under 120 pages, "The Water Horse" will be part of your bedtime story ritual for a week or so. While our son first protested that there were no pictures in the book, after the first night of reading he couldn’t wait to hear the rest.

We've seen that a movie based on "The Water Horse" was recently made, but sadly we weren't impressed with the Hollywood treatment of the story. In watching the trailer alone, we noticed that the main character is now Angus rather than Kristie (He finds the egg, while Kristie merely screams and recoils in fright upon seeing the little reptile. Nice message, Hollywood. We guess girls can't be strong egg-discovering explorers.) There's a token comedy scene which involves the Water Horse chasing the family dog (there was no dog in the book) and there are a slew of extra characters which were not in the book. Too bad.

We highly recommend "The Water Horse" if you’re looking for a lovely new story to share at bedtime. Skip the movie, and order the book.

Comments (8)

Although I do not think that I could recreate my father's daily letters from the "little people" who lived in our radiators, I will be reading anything by Kipling. My grandmother read it to my father and he read it to my brother and me. My father still reads it for fun and he is 64 today. Last year my mother found an early edition and my dad started crying.

I have to disagree about the movie version.

We bought it recently for our children, and everyone loves it. In fact, I'd say that it is probably the best kid movie we have bought, period.

Have you seen the whole movie or just the trailer? Because although Kristie is no longer the co-lead character, she is an important character and does more than scream.

The story has been changed somewhat in order to adapt to a full-length feature -- the movie at its core is about the wonder and magic of the water horse, and its amazing growth, but it is also about the Water Horse changes Angus, and helps him become courageous and accept the death of his father. A different kettle of fish, but the 5 year old still loves it.

I would love to read this book. Still, I have to agree with mschatelaine. My husband and I really enjoyed the movie, and although we are young at heart, we are not the youthful audience the studio had in mind for such a film. I'll be interested to see how different the book is, having seen the film first.

Mschatelaine -- that's good to know because I really wanted to buy the DVD for my son but was so disappointed with the trailer. Which do you like better? The movie or the book?

Wait...they kill off the dad in the movie?!

The movie is set during WWII, and presents a view of what it was like on the homefront during that time. Angus' dad is shown in memory sequences, with a much-younger Angus, who is counting down the days until his return. We later learn that his ship was sunk almost a year earlier, and he will never return home, a fact that Angus cannot accept.

The need to release the water horse and have him swim far away (so that he doesn't get caught in gates installed to catch German U-Boats), likely never to be seen again, leads Angus to accept that his father is not coming back.

Younger children are captivated by the astonishing animation, Emily Watson as the mother is discreetly brilliant, and Angus young and old are expertly cast.

We too saw the movie and just loved it. The water horse itself was just adorable and the acting was really superb. I got a little teary watching it. Will enjoy reading it to the kids, but would definitely recommend the movie too.