Story Time: The Velveteen Rabbit

The Velveteen Rabbit is a classic story written by Margery Williams that teaches children the value of true friendship and love. The premise of this story involves a young boy who is given a velveteen rabbit as a present one Christmas but overlooks the simple velveteen rabbit for more expensive toys. At first the child rarely plays with the velveteen rabbit and the other toys mistreat the velveteen rabbit. The toys as well as the real animals in the story are capable of conversing with each other and through their dialogue the reader comes to understand that toys that are truly loved by their owner become real.

The story takes an unexpected turn when one of the beloved toys belonging to the child is lost. At this time the boy begins to play with the velveteen rabbit and soon the velveteen rabbit becomes a favorite toy for the child and he takes the velveteen rabbit with him everywhere he goes. The velveteen rabbit becomes worn but still the child loves the toy. The velveteen rabbit believes that surely he must be real by now but he soon learns that this is not the case.

When the child becomes stricken with scarlet fever, he is unable to play with any of his toys for quite some time. As he recovers the doctor recommends that the child go to the seaside to continue his recovery. The child is excited about his upcoming trip and wishes to take his beloved velveteen rabbit with him. The doctor, however, tells the child that he cannot take the velveteen rabbit because it is covered in germs and orders that the velveteen rabbit be burnt to avoid the potential for the boy being re-infected by the germs. The child is upset but he is given a new toy rabbit and leaves in excitement for his trip.

As the velveteen rabbit awaits his seemingly inevitable fate, he begins to cry real tears. He is distraught that the boy could forget him so quickly but a fairy arrives to save the velveteen rabbit. Although the velveteen rabbit thought that he was already real, the fairy informed him that he was only real to the boy. The fairy takes the velveteen rabbit to the woods and suddenly he is real. The velveteen rabbit runs off into the wild to join the other rabbits that run free. The following spring the boy sees a rabbit in the wild that looks just like his velveteen rabbit. He believed that his beloved velveteen rabbit was destroyed in a fire so he never realizes that the rabbit he saw that beautiful spring day really was his own velveteen rabbit.

The message of The Velveteen Rabbit is that of friendship and love but sometimes this message is not the one that most readers of this poignant story comprehend. Many children consider this to be a sad story because the child loses his friend and never realizes that the rabbit that he saw the spring after he recovered really was his old friend. The child goes through life thinking that his velveteen rabbit was destroyed in the fire. There are some ways that parents or educators can help children to understand the friendship message in this story. One simple activity is to have the children read the story and then instruct them to write a poem describing the relationship that they have with one of their closest friends. This exercise will help the children to make the correlation between the friendship that the boy and the velveteen rabbit shared with the friendship they have with their own friends.