A gentle retelling for listeners ages 3–5 of Margery Williams’s classic: a velveteen toy rabbit learns from the wise Skin Horse that a toy becomes Real when a child loves it for a long, long time, and after the Boy’s scarlet fever puts the Rabbit in danger, the nursery magic Fairy makes him Real to everyone.
Read first 4 pagesThe opening of The Velveteen Rabbit: A Gentle Retelling, free to read.
On Christmas morning, the Boy pulled a surprise out of his stocking: a toy rabbit made of velveteen, a soft cloth. The Rabbit was plump, with brown and white spots, and he hugged a holly sprig.
The Rabbit got two hours of hugs. In came aunts, uncles, and presents, and wrapping paper slid over his ears. Nobody missed him. Later he sat in the nursery, the Boy’s playroom.
Around the Rabbit, the wind-up toys whirred and clicked, boasting that they were real. Timothy, the wooden lion, stuck his nose in the air. The Rabbit had no key and no springs, only sawdust inside. He felt small.
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