The Velveteen Rabbit, or How Toys Become Real (1922)

text by Margery Williams (Margery Williams Bianco), 1880-1944; ill. by Sir William Nicholson, 1872-1949

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• The main point of this story is that love helps to cope with the changes wrought by time. It addresses other themes closer to a child's psyche (abandonment, outsider status)--but overall it seems far more apt at soothing adult fears of aging, decay, and death.
• The problem faced by the hero (the stuffed rabbit of the title) is how to overcome its limitations as a toy (and a cheap one at that) and leap into full rabbithood.
• The resolution is achieved when the rabbit's loving endurance is rewarded by a kind fairy, who turns him into a real rabbit.
• This story may appeal to children thanks to its loving depiction of a child's environs, seen from the toys' perspective.
  • However, the detailed descriptions also make this world noticeably dated (compared to, say, the more generic room in Goodnight Moon--or the way we perceive fairy tales as occupying a timeless dimension of their own). Only children with an antiquarian bent will find this attractive.
• The story's greatest value, nowadays, is in encouraging adults' involvement with the children they read to--by placing the grown-ups' present anxieties within a child-like context.

See for yourself. Purchase from Amazon.com
a hardcover (with all new illustrations) or paperback copy of this book

E-text available at http://www.writepage.com/velvet.htm and http://users.wantree.com.au/~rabbit/velrab.htm

My notes while reading the book

• The philosophizing on "being real" may have come across as heartfelt at the time the book was written. Today, it feels overwrought at best--and at worst, cloyingly similar to the feel-good products of the greeting card industry.
  • Children will quite naturally consider real any toy they're playing with. The same toy reverts to not-real status when it goes back in the hamper. No magic or metaphysics required.
  • In this respect, Winnie-the-Pooh is far more successful. There, the stuffed animals seamlessly change--from individualized playmates to limp playthings dragged up and down the stairs, and back again. All in the innocent, spontaneous manner of genuine children.
• The language seems overly complex for its ostensible audience of young children. The stated reading level is "6th grade" (see copyright page)--but the tone and content of the story would be rejected as too baby-ish by children that old.
• The visual style of the illustrations (by an accomplished British painter and graphic artist) has a "retro" quality that may appeal today to adults who shop at Restoration Hardware. Their children will probably be unimpressed.
• The author uses sensory detail to good effect (e.g., the rabbit's dampness after being left outdoors).
• In spite of the presence of a child in the story, the author clearly expects her young readers to identify with the bunny. The child is not described in any detail, and does not have a name.
• A bit like Pinocchio (same story of redemption as a toy turns real), but without the wild adventures, the intense emotional and moral upheavals.

Class discussion

• Main issue, fear of abandonment, makes it similar to Toy Story.
• Being an outsider, the velveteen rabbit has to struggle to fit in. This is an oft-repeated theme in children's literature.
• Message: amount of love is what makes toys (or people) real.
• Imagination helps develop empathy, because first one must be able to imagine someone else's point of view.
• Belief in Santa Claus is not to be condemned as a lie. It provides emotions (thrill, anticipation) essential to the life of the child.
• Belief in Santa Claus also useful for the parent as a distancing device. Deflects the child's demands (toys, entertainment) when they cannot be satisfied by the parent: "Ask Santa".
• Transition from believing in Santa to not believing. "Theological" arguments between believer and non-believer siblings (with heated exchanges regarding evidence pro/con).
• Dealing with experience of loss in the book (where loss is mitigated by sweet, reassuring tone) serves as practice for dealing with real-life loss.
• The book deals with issues of illness and recovery.

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