Anyway, let's jump right into it! Today I want to talk to you all about the Margery Williams classic, The Velveteen Rabbit or When Toys Become Real. I had of course heard of this book, and knew it was somewhat of a must-read yet I had never actually read it. So I popped online and searched my local library catalogue. I could only find an abridged version of the story by Ruth Martin, more of a picture book style with lots of beautiful illustrations by Sophie Allsopp.
It was a really beautiful book, but I'm not sure I really enjoyed the story. I found the whole thing a little bit creepy if I'm honest!
When I was little I didn't like the idea of toys watching me, especially when I was going to sleep, so my poor old teddys had to often sleep with their faces to the wall! So as you can imagine a story about toys coming to life was not my ideal reading material!
The boy in the story, who remains unnamed, gets a toy rabbit for Christmas, but because he has so many other things too he doesn't really notice the rabbit. It's only in the absence of his normal china dog at bedtime that the boy discovers the rabbit.
I suppose if you truly analyse the meaning of 'realness' in this story it is all about love. A toy only becomes real once it has been really loved, and I'm sure we can all relate to this. We've all got a toy that we loved to absolute death as a small child, and probably still love even though it's balding and might only have one eye left. The point is that it's ours, and to us its more than just a toy, it represents our childhood.
The Velveteen Rabbit was not my cup of tea, and so writing about it has been hard. It might have something to do with when in was published, in the early 20s, or just that bizarre nature of the story, but I struggled to get anything out of it, despite it being a classic. The prose itself seems stilted and long winded, and the characters very two dimensional, and not particularly endearing. Unfortunately, i'm not sure this is a classic that has stood the test of time. Something along the same theme, such as the next book, 'I Love You, Blue Kangaroo', tackles the idea of 'realness' in a much better and more accessible way.
I suppose I won't love every book on this list, and there have been a few so far that I've not enjoyed (read about my feeling on 'A Series of Unfortunate Events' here). I try to give an honest review of what I read, and hope that that will inspire you to read the books on the list, either for yourself or with your children.
Thanks for reading, L x
Next time: 'I Love You, Blue Kangaroo' by Emma Chichester Clark
That's all very fair, you can't expect every book to resonate!
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Exactly! You can't win them all. X
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