Friday, January 04, 2013

The Velveteen Rabbit


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.

4 comments:

  1. 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.

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    1. I hope my children love it that much :)

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  2. I love this story. I recently reread it aloud to my mother because she used to read it to me. :) We both cried!

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    1. That's awesome. I'm trying to decide when to read it to my daughter. Soon, I think.

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