The Velveteen Rabbit

I would be hard pressed to name a more poignant, beautiful book for children. I've not shied away from the fact that I am known to cry while reading a really emotional scene in a book. The Velveteen Rabbit can now be added to that list. The author did a tremendously good job of showing the love a child can have towards their favorite toy and their passionate understanding that their toy is real and the sweet answer to the questions of what happens to the beloved item when the child is too old to play with it any longer. The illustrations are simple, colorful, and wonderfully vintage. I can definitely see why this one is a classic.

Yet another classic that I recently discovered has slipped past me (or at least, if I ever read it as a child, I have no recollection), Williams' The Velveteen Rabbit is a beautiful book and one that I'm glad to have stumbled across as an adult rather than as a child. It all happened because of a quote:

He said,"You become. It takes a long time. That's why it doesn't happen often to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don't matter at all, because once you are Real you can't be ugly, except to people who don't understand."

This quote show more came across my Facebook feed the other day, and in discussing the book with a couple of friends, it then occurred to me that I don't think I had ever read it, so bought a copy that weekend. This book resonated far better with my adult self than I think it ever could have as a child, which speaks volumes for the magic of this slim little volume. A happy addition to my library. show less

#564 in our old book database. Not rated. Jan. 19, 1990.

I recall that I didn't much like this book the first time I read it decades ago, but I decided to give it another go when the 100th Anniversary edition turned up on NPR's list of best children's books of 2022 that I'm reading as one of my 2023 goals.

The art for this edition is by Erin Stead, and overall I do prefer her style over the art by William Nicholson in the edition that my family owns, but the muted colors and droopy characters radiate moroseness from the get-go and throughout the tale. And while her rabbit is fine, as drawn it doesn't really match the description in the text as to the stuffed animal's form and really doesn't look much different from its first appearance to show more its supposedly worn look near the end of the story.

The story and its mythology really irritate me, and I ranted to my wife for quite awhile last night after we read the book together. Here's a taste of it. For starters, I'm torn between the Skin Horse being a false prophet of a faux religion of Real created to distract from the actual revelations of the tale's end, or the Skin Horse being John the Baptist to the Velveteen Rabbit's Christ who is risen again to immortality and finally opening the way for all toys to Heaven on Earth. And if there are two levels of Real, are there more? Say, fifteen, perhaps, as in Scientology? Will the Velveteen Rabbit continue to transcend as he tires of immortality on Earth? Will watching all the real rabbits in his life die every nine years as he goes on and on without the sweet release of death push him to a new epiphany of Real (Level 3)? Or will another random fairy/angel just pop up in time to move the story/pilgrimage along? Meanwhile, what about China Dog, the boy's first beloved toy? Did he achieve either level of Real or is he stuck in some limbo? What sins weigh down the soul of the Skin Horse that he is denied the second level of Real? What inherent evil of the modern age prevents mechanical toys from being able to enter the realm of Real? Is Williams a Luddite or simply unable to progress due to crippling obsession with nostalgia?

Or is this all just an attempt to create a parent cover story for throwing away kids' toys? The family pet goes off to live on "a farm in the country" and all the missing toys are now frolicking in the forest with the real animals.

Anyhow, I still don't like this book.

(Another project! I'm trying to read all the picture books and graphic novels on the kids section of NPR's Books We Love 2022.) show less

A children's book almost made my cry. It definitely made me sad and concerned. I was so worried for the Rabbit. I had never read The Velveteen Rabbit as a child. I didn't know what to expect. I always heard positive things about the story, I thought it was some happy tale with a typical children's moral at the end or something. That is not The Velveteen Rabbit that Margery Williams wrote. She wrote a children's story that had some tension. It actually made me glad that I read it privately first before I read it to my daughter. I would have had to answer some difficult questions or my three-and-a-half-year-old would not have understood certain plot points. I think in another year or two, she's going to love this story because of the show more magic. It's magic made out of love. What's better than that?! show less

"The Velveteen Rabbit" put me through a slew of emotions; I cried, I laughed, and I cried again. This book reflects the time it was written in and includes a real twist of events when the velveteen rabbit toy's owner gets scarlet fever. The emotional aspects of the book and the fear we feel when the boy gets sick or the rabbit needing to be burnt are something I appreciated. I felt empathy and shed a tear for someone other than myself for the first time in months. I can also appreciate the mix of fantasy plot elements like deus ex machina when the rabbit becomes real before it has to be burnt. 10/10

“Real isn’t how you are made,” said the Skin Horse. “It’s a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real.”

This is the classic story of a boy and his stuffed velveteen rabbit. It’s about becoming Real in a story that has fascinated children of all ages. It’s a story of unconditional love and childhood magic.

This book, part of the Kohl’s Cares program, is an heirloom edition to be shared, to be read aloud, to be loved.

Highly recommended.

One of my favorite children's books. It is all about loving someone for exactly who they are. It is about learning self-worth and knowing how to stay strong to become real. I read this every Christmas with my children even though they are grown now. This book will always hold a special place in my heart as it was my sister's favorite book before her death.