Or , How Toys Become Real
“The Velveteen Rabbit” is a classic children’s story about a little boy and his favorite toy. Margery Williams wrote the story in 1922 and dedicated it to her own son, Francesco Bianco. He was the basis for the title character, and memories of her own childhood toys were the idea behind his favorite rabbit. Although Williams wrote over 30 children’s books, none of them would find the success that “The Velveteen Rabbit,” enjoyed, nor did she expect it to become the classic that it has today.
When I was little I owned this book, and I took it very much to heart. In fact, I blame many of my neurosis on it today. The very thought that inanimate objects might have feelings puts an entirely new spin on how you might look at things. While I should have outgrown this a long time ago, I still grab the first box of cereal on the shelf “because it is his turn,” and return misplaced toys to their proper shelves at stores “so they won’t get lost.” It has been a source of ribbing for me for years, and it all goes back to one book from my childhood, “The Velveteen Rabbit.”
The title of the book, “The Velveteen Rabbit or How Toys Become Real,” says it all. The story revolves around a little boy, and his velveteen rabbit, his most beloved toy. He spends day after day with his toy, and the velveteen rabbit loves him very much. The boy even says that the bunny is real, and the velveteen rabbit believes him. One day the boy becomes sick, with Scarlet Fever, and after a long time of being ill, begins to get a little better. Unfortunately, all of his toys carry those germs, and the doctor says they must all be burned so that the boy cannot become ill again. So they pack up all of his toys, the bunny too, in a burlap bag and throw them out into the garden to be burned the next morning. Of course little children are almost crying by now as the story is read to them, and it is meant for our heart to break, because as readers WE know that the bunny is real to us, even though he is just a toy to that horrible doctor. So, the bunny lies there thinking about the boy, and how he misses him, when suddenly a tear runs down his velvet cheek and onto the ground. A flower sprouts from the spot, and a fairy appears, the nursery magic Fairy, who has come to turn
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