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Pond and Stream
Excerpt:
Long before we reach the pond, we hear the quaack, quaack of the ducks, and see them waddling along with their bodies very near the ground by the muddy edges of the water, flopping hurriedly first on one leg and then on the other. When we get near them we can see that as they lift their feet they turn their toes in in a manner that shows they have not been at all properly brought up. But then without warning they throw themselves forward along the water, and swim, looking, suddenly, quite graceful. Everything looks quite graceful in its proper place, and almost everything looks silly when it is anywhere else. Even swans, who are the most beautiful of all birds in the water, look as ungainly as can be when they walk along the ground. And if you put a fish, who swims beautifully in the pool, out on the dry land, he just flops and dies, and that is not a pretty sight at all.
Long before we reach the pond, we hear the quaack, quaack of the ducks, and see them waddling along with their bodies very near the ground by the muddy edges of the water, flopping hurriedly first on one leg and then on the other. When we get near them we can see that as they lift their feet they turn their toes in in a manner that shows they have not been at all properly brought up. But then without warning they throw themselves forward along the water, and swim, looking, suddenly, quite graceful. Everything looks quite graceful in its proper place, and almost everything looks silly when it is anywhere else. Even swans, who are the most beautiful of all birds in the water, look as ungainly as can be when they walk along the ground. And if you put a fish, who swims beautifully in the pool, out on the dry land, he just flops and dies, and that is not a pretty sight at all.
40 pages, Kindle Edition
First published December 18, 2012
26 people are currently reading
42 people want to read
About the author
Arthur Ransome
302 books280 followersArthur Michell Ransome (January 18, 1884 – June 3, 1967) was an English author and journalist. He was educated in Windermere and Rugby.
In 1902, Ransome abandoned a chemistry degree to become a publisher's office boy in London. He used this precarious existence to practice writing, producing several minor works before Bohemia in London (1907), a study of London's artistic scene and his first significant book.
An interest in folklore, together with a desire to escape an unhappy first marriage, led Ransome to St. Petersburg, where he was ideally placed to observe and report on the Russian Revolution. He knew many of the leading Bolsheviks, including Lenin, Radek, Trotsky and the latter's secretary, Evgenia Shvelpina. These contacts led to persistent but unproven accusations that he "spied" for both the Bolsheviks and Britain.
Ransome married Evgenia and returned to England in 1924. Settling in the Lake District, he spent the late 1920s as a foreign correspondent and highly-respected angling columnist for the Manchester Guardian, before settling down to write Swallows and Amazons and its successors.
Today Ransome is best known for his Swallows and Amazons series of novels, (1931 - 1947). All remain in print and have been widely translated.
Arthur Ransome died in June 1967 and is buried at Rusland in the Lake District.
In 1902, Ransome abandoned a chemistry degree to become a publisher's office boy in London. He used this precarious existence to practice writing, producing several minor works before Bohemia in London (1907), a study of London's artistic scene and his first significant book.
An interest in folklore, together with a desire to escape an unhappy first marriage, led Ransome to St. Petersburg, where he was ideally placed to observe and report on the Russian Revolution. He knew many of the leading Bolsheviks, including Lenin, Radek, Trotsky and the latter's secretary, Evgenia Shvelpina. These contacts led to persistent but unproven accusations that he "spied" for both the Bolsheviks and Britain.
Ransome married Evgenia and returned to England in 1924. Settling in the Lake District, he spent the late 1920s as a foreign correspondent and highly-respected angling columnist for the Manchester Guardian, before settling down to write Swallows and Amazons and its successors.
Today Ransome is best known for his Swallows and Amazons series of novels, (1931 - 1947). All remain in print and have been widely translated.
Arthur Ransome died in June 1967 and is buried at Rusland in the Lake District.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
July 28, 2022
I felt transported like a child as I listened to this short book.
I, like a child, know very little of ponds and streams or the life that live inside them.
This book, like a children's book for grown ups, took me on a journey with the Elf and the Imp through their waterlands as both they experienced and I learned about pond fish like the stickleback-- why they are named so and what they look like.
The Dipper, for example, and how it's a bird that can swim underwater.
It is a book in a series called "The Nature Books For Children" that I intend to listen to throughout my day.
I am sad to see one of the other reviewers comment on how dated the book is due to "gender roles" in the book.
Obviously the Imp is a mythical little boy and the Elf is a mythical little girl.
Gender roles being 'of their era' seems to be all the criticism people have for children's books and fairy tails. The superficial criticism speaks to the superficiality of their own era more than any true digestive attempt to disambiguate and understand what the author was writing.
I wish they would criticize their criticism and realize they have been trained to 'wince' at 'gender roles' which is a miraculous work of modern hypocrisy. What they winced at, I found endearing.
Such is the way of a book though, there can never be only one reader.
And I am the reader who grows excited when I think about reading this book to my child one day, and letting this book be their introduction to creatures they have never seen but are truly and very real. I want to see their eyes glow up as they hear about these amazing creatures and beg me to take them to see them. And I can, like a civilized pygmy, hide my own yearning vicariously through their yearnings.
And this book was my parent, it took me to see the creatures like I was both the Imp and the Elf. If you can find enjoyment in the childlike gayness of such adventures, then this book has a libravox recording you can listen to for free with a good narrator.
Give it a go and be the troublelessome little Imp or Elf you wish to be for an hour.
I, like a child, know very little of ponds and streams or the life that live inside them.
This book, like a children's book for grown ups, took me on a journey with the Elf and the Imp through their waterlands as both they experienced and I learned about pond fish like the stickleback-- why they are named so and what they look like.
The Dipper, for example, and how it's a bird that can swim underwater.
It is a book in a series called "The Nature Books For Children" that I intend to listen to throughout my day.
I am sad to see one of the other reviewers comment on how dated the book is due to "gender roles" in the book.
Obviously the Imp is a mythical little boy and the Elf is a mythical little girl.
Gender roles being 'of their era' seems to be all the criticism people have for children's books and fairy tails. The superficial criticism speaks to the superficiality of their own era more than any true digestive attempt to disambiguate and understand what the author was writing.
I wish they would criticize their criticism and realize they have been trained to 'wince' at 'gender roles' which is a miraculous work of modern hypocrisy. What they winced at, I found endearing.
Such is the way of a book though, there can never be only one reader.
And I am the reader who grows excited when I think about reading this book to my child one day, and letting this book be their introduction to creatures they have never seen but are truly and very real. I want to see their eyes glow up as they hear about these amazing creatures and beg me to take them to see them. And I can, like a civilized pygmy, hide my own yearning vicariously through their yearnings.
And this book was my parent, it took me to see the creatures like I was both the Imp and the Elf. If you can find enjoyment in the childlike gayness of such adventures, then this book has a libravox recording you can listen to for free with a good narrator.
Give it a go and be the troublelessome little Imp or Elf you wish to be for an hour.
July 29, 2021
It's a curiosity in not having a plot or narrative thread, although it's clearly not a textbook either. Any modern reader has to remember it's very much "of it's era" and some of the attitudes, particularly as regards gender roles, will make you wince.
The lake described here sounds very much like the lake in 'Swallows and Amazons', so there is something of a tie-in for fans of that popular series. And who isn't a fan? However the ever-present highpoint of the book is the grandfather's (father's?) clear delight in spending 'quality time' with the children, inspiring them to be keen natural historians. Some dreamy Ransome sentences too. Just as it should be.
The lake described here sounds very much like the lake in 'Swallows and Amazons', so there is something of a tie-in for fans of that popular series. And who isn't a fan? However the ever-present highpoint of the book is the grandfather's (father's?) clear delight in spending 'quality time' with the children, inspiring them to be keen natural historians. Some dreamy Ransome sentences too. Just as it should be.
August 8, 2021
Very cute short book about aquatic wildlife. Makes me want to go sit by the river and nature watch!
May 4, 2023
Pre-read this to see if it would work for our elementary biology study, but I will not assign it. It is a cute story that achieves the goal of coaxing one to go out and enjoy a pond, but most of the information is more enjoyably gleaned from a visit to the ponds and streams rather than the text. I would much rather a book of this sort to give extra information a child could not gather from basic observation.
September 4, 2024
This follows 2 children as they explore pond and stream and all they contain. It is fun and educational and my kids learned a lot from each chapter. It definitely inspired them to go to a pond and investigate
April 2, 2025
My children and I greatly enjoyed this charming book, learning about pond and stream “water people”. This is a fantastic book to use in nature study during the early years of a Charlotte Mason style education.
January 1, 2021
We used this alongside a myriad of other books for nature study in school and thoroughly enjoyed it.
November 9, 2022
Engaging and enchanting. Not surprising that this author also wrote the Swallows and Amazon books.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews