Book Review: The Velveteen Rabbit

The Velveteen Rabbit, by Margery Williams, was originally published in 1922. For this book review, I listened to an e-audiobook version. When I realized that the e-audiobook was an incomplete version of the original printed story, I borrowed an e-book to read. The Velveteen Rabbit is a classic children’s book. The story is about a toy rabbit, who wants to become “Real.” This is not a children’s picture book. Your young child or children may not be interested in this story or understand its themes at all.

The Velveteen Rabbit is given to a boy as a Christmas gift. The other toys in the boy’s nursery pretended to be “Real,” so the Velveteen Rabbit became curious about what that was. The Skin Horse explained “Real” is what happens when a child loves a toy until it becomes old and shabby. For those of us, adults, who grew up watching Walt Disney’s Pinocchio, the plot sounds familiar: a normally inanimate object wants to become real.

This is an imaginative children’s story about how toys become real. As an adult, I enjoyed the story, but parents may want to test the story out on their children by borrowing the book from the library first before buying it. I read the printed version of this book a year ago to a then six-year-old girl and a four-year-old boy. This book did not capture their attention. The printed version of the book has very few illustrations. Those illustrations were not brightly colored. The design of those illustrations are dull and mature, not something young children would be excited to look at. The story has more words than the brightly colored picture books I normally read to these two children, so they easily became fidgety, distracted, and ultimately fell asleep on it. Although this is an enjoyable book by adult standards, the real test is whether children think this story is enjoyable and worth their trying to read on their own. My two test subjects were not impressed due to too many words in the story and lack of colorful pictures.

Perhaps, my test subjects were just too young and immature to appreciate The Velveteen Rabbit. I know this book is familiar to teachers who may eventually read this story to their students during story time or assign this story to their students to read in class or at home. As a parent or guardian, the whole point of reading to children is to prepare them for school or give them a competitive edge in school by exposing them to knowledge and literature at home. Unfortunately, the only thing this book is successful at is putting a six-year-old and a four-year-old to sleep. Perhaps, The Velveteen Rabbit is best read to children as a bedtime story.

Another possibility is that The Velveteen Rabbit is no longer culturally relevant for the time young children live in now. Consider this. Is your child or children playing with plush animals and pretending they can talk? Or, is your child or children playing video games on your cell phone or a computer tablet or watching children play with toys on YouTube videos? This book was originally published in 1922. Some toys and media that children are exposed to now were not in existence then, for example, video games and internet videos. Are electronic games and media industries taking away our children’s imagination? Or, is classic literature like The Velveteen Rabbit simply out of style due to changes in our culture, society, and technology?

Despite my test subjects’ apathy for the print version of this book a year ago, I still recommend this book for day care providers, babysitters, parents, and teachers to read to young children. I want to focus on the one positive thing that did happened… Both kids fell asleep during the reading of the print version of The Velveteen Rabbit. As adults and guardians of children, we can use all the help we can get in preparing a child or children for bed when they would rather stay up late. What better way to do that is with literature that may be assigned to or read to your child or children by teachers? I recommend The Velveteen Rabbit as a bedtime story for young children. Even if your young child or children are not interested in The Velveteen Rabbit, they may still have an advantage in school by having heard it at home. They can thank us, adults, later for reading it to them even though they may not want to listen to it.

I must offer a warning in using e-media to read or listen to The Velveteen Rabbit. Some e-media providers through your local library only provide excerpts or an abridged version of a book in e-audiobook format. The e-audiobook’s description may claim it is unabridged, but you may still end up with an incomplete story. You may need to borrow a printed version of a book while you listen to an e-audiobook to check for accuracy and completeness as you listen. Had I not read a printed version of The Velveteen Rabbit a year ago, I would not have known that the e-audiobook I had listened to via Hoopla was an abridged version of the story. Therefore, I had to borrow an e-book version from Hoopla that may very well be an exact copy of the original printed version of The Velveteen Rabbit.

There are numerous versions, printed and published for The Velveteen Rabbit in the library. Some may be an exact copy of the original 1922 publication and others are abridged versions and may use a totally different illustrator. Try to look for The Velveteen Rabbit books with illustrations by William Nicholson. A complete audiobook of The Velveteen Rabbit should be around 30 minutes long, not 12 minutes, for a complete audio version of the original story. This book has more words than what you might expect from children’s picture books. Reading an abridged version of a book may take away the whole point of the story. We will miss out on the message or theme without a complete version of the book.

The themes of this book are the creation and salvation of life. Like the magic and mystery of a biblical creation myth, The Velveteen Rabbit is the author’s version of a creation myth. An inanimate object became “Real” with the power to move on its own and exercise free will. In the Judeo-Christian mythology, god creates Adam and Eve according to the Book of Genesis. In Margery Williams’ The Velveteen Rabbit, a toy becomes “Real” to the child first and then, a supernatural being makes the toy “Real” to everyone, who sees it.

The second issue, salvation of life, is akin to the Jesus myth within Christianity. In the New Testament, Jesus sacrifices his mortal life in order to save humanity with everlasting, spiritual life after death or salvation in heaven. In Margery Williams’ The Velveteen Rabbit, the doctor and Nana sacrifices the boy’s toys and books to preserve the boy’s life and health. Even though the boy got better after suffering scarlet fever, the doctor advised Nana to burn the toys and books, because they are covered with germs. As in biblical stories, these polluted objects were being purged, exiled, condemned to death, or damned in a fiery hell in order to save the boy from contracting scarlet fever again.

Like the Jesus myth, the Velveteen Rabbit was being sacrificed, so someone else can live. While the Velveteen Rabbit awaited his fate in a bag overnight to be burned the next day, he cried a tear. The tear fell to the ground. A flower sprang up in the spot where the tear fell. A fairy came out of the blossom. The boy had previously called the Velveteen Rabbit “REAL” and loved him very much, but that love was not enough. The Velveteen Rabbit had to suffer a loss of some kind, a sacrifice, in order to gain the favor and mercy of a supernatural being in order to make him “Real” to everyone. The Velveteen Rabbit’s life with the boy had to end in order for him to become a “Real” rabbit through supranational intervention.

The fairy carries the Velveteen Rabbit to the wood where the real rabbits play. The fairy tells the real rabbits: “I’ve brought you a new playfellow… You must be very kind to him and teach him all he needs to know in Rabbit-land, for he is going to live with you for ever and ever!” In real life, rabbits do not live forever and ever. Rabbits in the real world are eaten by any number of predators or they may just die of old age, illness, or freak accidents. “Rabbit-land” is Margery Williams’ version of heaven for her salvation myth. The whole issue over becoming “Real” is about becoming “saved” from eternal damnation by fire. The fairy kisses the Velveteen Rabbit and told him, “Run and play, little Rabbit!” This is similar to the myth of Adam and Eve where god tells them to “be fruitful and multiply.” Rabbits are a symbol of life and fertility in American culture. The fairy’s kiss is a symbolic breath of life, magically transforming the Velveteen Rabbit into “Real,” both as a living being and a saved soul with eternal life in “Rabbit-land” or heaven.

The Velveteen Rabbit does not describe any toy in the bag to be burned and what they may have been thinking. The toys, who did not cry, may have been burned as planned. Thus, their toy lives ended by fire or an eternal damnation. They will neither exist in this world nor the next after being burned. This destruction of toys by fire is what happens to toys when they do not have the love of a child or the grace of a divine entity. In William’s myth, toys become “Real” when a child loves them and declares them to be “REAL.” The boy simply did not love them as much or empower them with the means to transition to “Real” by supernatural intervention. The boy’s love for the Velveteen Rabbit is akin to the word of Jesus Christ, allowing those, who have received it to escape an eternal death and pass on to eternal life. In a way, both the Velveteen Rabbit and the boy were each other’s saviors. After all, the Velveteen Rabbit’s love for the boy helped him survive the scarlet fever before the fairy made the Velveteen Rabbit “Real.”

When I read The Velveteen Rabbit a year ago to two disinterested children, I didn’t notice any biblical analogies during that first reading. At that time, I simply wondered whether this story influenced Disney’s Pinocchio or the other way around. The problems associated with accessing a complete version of this story via my local library’s electronic media contractors have forced me to read or listen to multiple versions of The Velveteen Rabbit. Therefore, I noticed details now that I glanced over a year ago when I first read it.

Now, that I have noticed the connections between The Velveteen Rabbit and creation and salvation myths, I can see why this book is timeless. It represents the many ways authors re-tell and re-invent ancient religious myths and beliefs through secular stories. A young child is not going to notice the importance of the Velveteen Rabbit as a Christmas gift, the issue of becoming “Real” as analogous to being “saved,” the symbolism of a rabbit for life and fertility in American culture, the burning of the toys and books as a symbol for eternal damnation or hell, the rabbit’s tear as a symbol of sacrifice, and the fairy’s kiss as the breath of life. This book is too deep for a young child or many young children to understand its themes. This book is marketed on Amazon.com for ages three to seven. My two test subjects fell within that age group and they were still uninterested in this book.

This story is beyond the depth of understanding and knowledge for small children. Adults or older children would be able to recognize the Christian undertones of this book. Yet, older children may not want to read about a stuffed animal. The Velveteen Rabbit is, basically, a children’s book for adults. College students, majoring in literature, English, religion, philosophy, education, early childhood education, psychology, sociology, anthropology, ancient and medieval Western history should consider writing a term paper about the religious themes communicated in this secular book, mature themes within children’s literature, or whether classic children’s literature is culturally relevant today. While The Velveteen Rabbit is a classic book and every library will likely have multiple copies of it, this book is not currently in vogue in the media. This may be a refreshing subject for college students to present in their term papers or for professors to present to their students in lectures.

 

Reference

Bianco, Margery Williams. The Velveteen Rabbit, or, How toys become real. New York: Doubleday, 1991.

Williams, Margery. The Velveteen Rabbit. New York City: Scholastic Audio, 2007. E-audiobook. Read by Emily Bauer. Hoopla.

Williams, Margery. The Velveteen Rabbit. New York: Racehorse for Young Readers, 2017. E-book. Hoopla.

 

Links

Margery Williams’s biography on Wikipedia

The Velveteen Rabbit article on Wikipedia

The Velveteen Rabbit on Amazon.com

The Original Velveteen Rabbit at BarnesandNoble.com

 

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