Parents' Guide to The Water Horse

In Dick King-Smith's THE WATER HORSE, Kirstie finds what appears to be an unusually large fish egg on the beach. She takes it home and puts it in the bathtub. When a strange creature emerges, she and her brother, Angus, feed it sardines. Their grandfather, whom the children call Grumble, recognizes the creature as a sea monster of legend that locals call a "water horse." The children and their grandfather name their monster "Crusoe," because he was a castaway. The monster and its appetite grow to extreme proportions, and soon Crusoe must be moved to a pond outside. The kids' mother encourages the children to catch fish in the loch near their home, to keep up with the water horse's hunger. When the weather turns cold, the family fears that Crusoe's pond will freeze over, and he will be trapped inside with no ability to breathe. Meanwhile, the children's father, who has been away serving in the military, returns on leave, and he helps Grumble and the children lure Crusoe out of the pond and into the nearby loch. However, as the monster continues to grow at an alarming rate, they face another problem: how to keep the friendly beast, who associates humans with food and companionship, hidden from outsiders. Finally, they devise a plan to move Crusoe to a larger body of water that can become his forever home.