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 magic. It's magic made out of love. What's better than that?!
A quick comment on the illustrations... I expected there to be more. There were a few and they were lovely. I really liked William Nicholson's style. They matched the story beautifully, classic, just like Williams' tale. I suppose it's not a short book, so maybe more illustrations would have made it seem too long?
The Velveteen Rabbit is the first of many books I plan on reading for The Classics Club. It was a great start. It's made me look forward to reading all the books on that intimidating list.
The William Nicholson edition is the one I read and loved as a child. I think I wore that book to pieces about as much as the old horse in the book. Love *can* make you real.
ReplyDeleteI hope my children love it that much :)
DeleteI love this story. I recently reread it aloud to my mother because she used to read it to me. :) We both cried!
ReplyDeleteThat's awesome. I'm trying to decide when to read it to my daughter. Soon, I think.
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