The Velveteen Rabbit: Or How Toys Become Real (All Aboard Books) - Softcover

Margery Williams

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0448190834 ISBN 13: 9780448190839

Publisher: Grosset & Dunlap, 1987

Synopsis

A timeless classic that has been treasured for generations—this edition features the original story with heartwarming illustrations from David Jorgensen.

Once you are Real you can't become unreal again. It lasts for always.

At first a brand-new toy, now a threadbare and discarded nursery relic, the velveteen rabbit is saved from peril by a magic fairy who whisks him away to the idyllic world of Rabbitland. There, he becomes ""Real,"" a cherished childhood companion who will be loved for eternity.

This wondrous tale of the velveteen rabbit has delighted readers of all ages with its story of transformation and redemption through a child's unwavering love.

About this title

About the Author

MARGERY WILLIAMS was born in London in 1881 and first came to the United States at the age of nine. For the rest of her life, she lived alternately in England and America. Her first novel was published when she was twenty-one, but she turned to writing for children in 1922 with the publication by Doubleday of The Velveteen Rabbit, the best-known of her thirty books for young people. Toward the end of her life, she lived in Greenwich Village in New York City. She died there in 1944. 

WILLIAM NICHOLSON was born in Newark-on-Trent, England, in 1872. He illustrated several books during his lifetime, including the children's classic The Velveteen Rabbit, and was also a renowned portrait painter. Many of his portraits and still lifes hang today in museums and galleries throughout England. He was knighted in 1936, and died in 1949.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

"What is REAL?" asked the Rabbit one day, when they were lying side by side near the nursery fender, before Nana came to tidy the room. "Does it mean having things that buzz inside you and a stick-out handle?"

"Real isn't how you are made," said the Skin Horse. "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."

"Does it hurt?" asked the Rabbit.

"Sometimes," said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. "When you are Real you don't mind being hurt."

"Does it happen all at once, like being wound up," he asked, "or bit by bit?"

"It doesn't happen all at once," said the Skin Horse. "You become. It takes a long time. That's why it doesn't often happen to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don't matter at all, because once you are Real you can't be ugly, except to people who don't understand."

Edition details

• Publisher: Grosset & Dunlap
• Publication date: 1987
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0448190834
• ISBN 13: 9780448190839
• Binding: Paperback
• Illustrator: Florence Graham
• Number of pages: 32