The Velveteen Rabbit

Williams, Margery. The Velveteen Rabbit. Illus. Michael Hague. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1983. 

This story begins with a boy receiving Rabbit, a simple toy made out velveteen and sawdust for Christmas. Because Rabbit is simple he is made fun of by the other toys that are complex and therefore sophisticated. However it is through Skin Horse (another nursery toy) that Rabbit learns what it means to be “Real”, “Real isn’t how you are made. 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, said the Skin Horse” (4). It is not long after this talk that the boy cannot find his china dog that he usually sleeps with. His exasperated Nana gave him Rabbit to sleep with instead. That was the turning point in the relationship between the boy and Rabbit; they became inseparable and Rabbit, over time, became loved. It is at the end of the story that Rabbit, after being taken away from Boy, becomes Real. Even though he achieved his dream of becoming Real, Rabbit still went back to see the boy, “who had first helped him to be Real” (33). 

It is Michael Hague’s use of warm colors and shadowing that the reader can relate and identify with the pictures, and how they compliment the text of the story. Margery Williams provides a story that children can understand, using the boy and his relationship with Rabbit. Most children can appreciate that bond, because they too had a favorite toy