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May 20, 2011

K.D. rated it:

The Velveteen Rabbit or How Toys Become Real by Margery Williams Bianco (1881-1944) was originally published in 1922 when she was 41 years old.

Tonight is my first time to read this book. Shame on me. It only took 15 mins to read it and at first I was totally not impressed. I thought I already saw the theme of previously-cherished toys being discarded either in favor of a newer or more hi-tech toy or when the child becomes an adult used in Disney/Pixar's movie Toy Story. I also thoug More...

17 comments like (12 people liked it)

Feb 26, 2011

Jinky rated it:

My scanned copy (this library edition doesn't have Bianco and it's 44pg long; isbn:0385077483; I don't see a copyright date but process date of this book in the library stated 4/1/87)

I read one of those Christmas toddler abridged board book version of this book a long time ago and found it to be a darling story. I wanted to see the original version so I checked this out from my local library. Sweet story. Oddly enough, I think I like the abridged version better (perhaps due More...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Feb 19, 2008

Rachel C. rated it:

Beautiful and deeply touching. At Meredith's wedding last year, her brother and sister read a passage from this book, including the below - an inspired choice.

"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 Ho More...

0 comments like (22 people liked it)

Oct 26, 2011

Ronyell rated it:

“The Velveteen Rabbit” is Rabbit Ears’ first classic story that is based off of Margery Williams’ popular tale and it is about how a toy rabbit learns the true meaning of being real. With Meryl Streep’s tender narration, George Winston’s soft music and David Jorgensen’s beautiful illustrations, “The Velveteen Rabbit” is an instant classic that children will watch over and over again.

What made this video truly memorable was Meryl Streep’s tender and soothing narration. Meryl Streep g More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jan 02, 2011

Mariel rated it:

I would have loved the Velveteen Rabbit forever. Maybe because I related more to the rabbit than to the kid. Who can afford to throw away friends? Motives are murkier as you get older, and people can be asshole versions of themselves, yeah I get that. But I wish there was more loyalty and purity of heart like that rabbit.

P.s. Unless your dog eats your most treasured friend that you saved for years and years.

P.s.s. Forgot my shout-out. Shout-out to Amy!

P.s.s.s More...

3 comments like (5 people liked it)

Jul 12, 2007

Maggie rated it:

"It doesn't happen all at once. You become. It takes a long time. That's why it doesn't happen often 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 your 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."

2 comments like (7 people liked it)

Aug 02, 2007

Bill rated it:

A terrific book, even as an adult, but it gave me quite a scare as a little kid. See, I actually managed to get scarlet fever in the first grade, and because of The Velveteen Rabbit, I was terrified that someone was going to come in and force me to burn all of my toys like the kid in the book had to when he was sick. Thankfully, though, medicine advanced beyond toy burning in between the publishing of this book and 1982, so my G.I. Joes were safe.

1 comment like (6 people liked it)

Jan 26, 2012

Matthieu rated it:

Small tragedies, small children, small world.

5 comments like (2 people liked it)

Feb 01, 2012

Eve rated it:

This book was written in 1922 and I would recommend it for older children – perhaps to read to a Year 3 to Year 5 class, or for a Year 6 child to read to the teacher. The vocabulary is quite difficult, and very descriptive, and so it may be suitable for a more advanced reader.

The book tells the story of a toy rabbit, loved by the boy who owns him. When the boy becomes ill with scarlet fever, all of his toys, including the rabbit, are thrown away and new ones bought for him. However, More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Feb 04, 2009

Tricia rated it:

A great tribute to that special "lovey" so many of us remember. Whenever I think about this story, I think about my Care Bear that went on countless vacations, summer camps, and an accidental swim in a pond.
Great story, but a little long for really young kids.

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Aug 19, 2007

Audrey rated it:

Such a beautiful beautiful story. During my second year of teaching, I started taking 30 minutes or so on Fridays to read a children's story to my juniors, and then we'd discuss it in the context of a shared letters project that was ongoing through the year. It never failed that I would cry every time I read this story -- the whole concept of being real as it is explained in the book just moves me so much. When you are shabby and well-worn and your whiskers are rubbed off and your fur is patchy, More...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Feb 03, 2012

Shelly rated it:

This is such a cute story, even if it's a little sad. I just finished re-reading it and kept thinking this is something that is so timeless and can teach everyone a little humility, we are all fragile beings in this crazy thing called life. Being real is something I think even adults have trouble with, and books like this remind us to be grounded. I think labeling books strictly as childrens' does a great disservice to them. Sure, some are completely inane and have no point, but a great deal More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 09, 2010

Sloan rated it:

This is by far my favorite book from childhood. My mother read it to me countless times. I really can’t express in words what this tiny book means to me. It brings me to tears every time I read it. It also makes me pull out my own version of "a velveteen rabbit," which is a little gray bear that I have had since the day I was born. It's funny but when I pull that bear out and hold him in my arms it brings a rush of comfort and a feeling that everything is right.

This story More...

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Oct 26, 2011

Daniel rated it:

Altho this is on a different record label, it is the same release. This is the audio CD version with George Winston playing piano and Meryl Streep doing the narration.

I must admit to not being familiar with the story before I listened to this, which is one of the reasons I wanted to hear it. Meryl Streep adopts an English accent for her narration and it works quite well. The music also complements the story quite well. I found the charming story simple and moving. I will always remem More...

4 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 10, 2008

Roxton rated it:

I found an "original edition" copy of The Velveteen Rabbit today at my Barnes & Noble while I was organizing the children's classics bay. It was the only one left. This was fortuitous for me since I lost my big beautiful full-color hardcover copy in a flood in upstate New York.

I struggle with giving this only four stars. Few children's books are better. I just always have a tiny problem with a Deus Ex Machina climax in the form of a magical twist at the end of an otherwise More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 01, 2008

Sri rated it:

Buku yang mengharukan bahkan bagi aku yang sudah bukan anak-anak lagi :D. Mengisahkan mimpi sebuah boneka kelinci untuk menjadi hidup. Mainan kuda mengatakan bahwa mainan akan menjadi hidup kalau dia menjadi mainan kesayangan. Karena suatu keberuntungan si kelinci pun menjadi mainan kesayangan. Dia pun bahagia walaupun tubuhnya jadi lusuh karena terlalu sering dipegang-pegang, dipeluk-peluk, disayang-sayang. Tapi dia menjadi kebingungan waktu dia bertemu dua ekor kelinci sungguhan. Kelinci-kelin More...

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Sep 16, 2011

Jen rated it:

Before Toy Story (but after Pooh and Pinocchio), there was the Velveteen Rabbit. This was recommended to me by the same dear friend who loves The Keeping Quilt--I bought this copy for him, actually, because his copy went missing. Then he got sick, and I couldn't very well buy him a stuffed rabbit because he and I are Adults, and we do not have Toys.

Of course, before giving it to him, I read it myself, because I hadn't read it before (though I'd seen the cartoon a thousand times as More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Sep 02, 2011

Nora rated it:

"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."
At first i having second thoughts of reading this book.i thought there are other interesting books that I can read.I was wrong though coz this book is not just for children.The Skin Horse to me is a very intereting character, it's like talking to my parents or grandparents More...

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Jun 24, 2011

Cindi rated it:

How does one become real? Is it by having special features that intrigue and delight or does love make it happen? The kind of love that wears away any rough edges, makes one's joints get loose, the fur is loved off, and the eyes fall out; is that what makes one real? The Velveteen Rabbit: or How Toys Become Real is a children's book that asks these very questions.

It is easy to see why The Velveteen Rabbit has been a children's favorite since it was first published in 1922. More...

0 comments like

Mar 26, 2011

Merline rated it:

After I first read this, I proceeded to memorize portion from pages 16-17.

"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 wit More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Mar 22, 2011

Violet rated it:

My mother used to read this book to me and never got to finish it because she was crying so hard. When I got my Kindle for Christmas, it was one of the books in public domain that were available for free. I downloaded it immediately. I read through it all, nice and slow so I wouldn't miss anything. I balled like a newborn baby.

When I was little, this book was just a story about a rabbit that got lost by its owner. I didn't understand it then. I didn't understand the deep meaning behin More...

0 comments like

Jan 21, 2011

Gail rated it:

One of my favorite books! I re-read it on my laptop, Kindle for PC.

"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."
"Do More...

0 comments like

Apr 20, 2010

maricar rated it:

Short and sweet.

In a way, I was sheepishly annoyed with it: “How dare this little story make me feel small??”

Because I was an ungrateful, careless git with my toys back then.

No, I didn’t decimate, but I always grew quickly tired of them…and certainly never to the extent that I slept with a stuffed animal. I’m sure if I did, it would be full of drool in no time.

Anywho, setting aside my self-centered ruminations, The Velveteen Rabbit is, truly, a ch More...

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Jun 17, 2009

Sandra rated it:

The Skin Horse had lived longer in the nursery than any of the others. He was so old that his brown coat was bald in patches and showed the seams underneath, and most of the hairs in his tail had been pulled out to string bead necklaces. He was wise, for he had seen a long succession of mechanical toys arrive to boast and swagger, and by-and-by break their mainsprings and pass away, and he knew that they were only toys, and would never turn into anything else. For nursery magic is very strange a More...

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Dec 11, 2007

stephanie rated it:

this is a beautiful book. and it also is one of the most beautiful things to hear, the version where meryl streep reads and george winston plays music. it's utterly gorgeous, and makes me cry every time i hear it.

oh, wise Skin Horse. "then you become real."

i love how this book touches on the fact that being real HURTS, isn't just something that is fun and easy. and part of me always aches for the little boy, and for the rabbit he lost, all in the name of becoming r

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 29, 2011

Ceridwen added it

I am so so far behind on my kiddie-book reviewing that I claimed I would do at the new year that it isn't even funny. So here's a hard one to review.

I read this to my son last week, and it was a total disaster. He's a really sensitive kid, and more so at bedtime because he is tired and thinking. We got to the halfway point, where nothing much has happened by the boy and the rabbit finding their realness together. I put the book down, not really looking at him, and dug around in the b More...

30 comments like (32 people liked it)

Jul 24, 2009

Zero rated it:

Although it is a children's books I feel that it has very important themes, and is very telling about society. First of all, the little boy loves the Velveteen bunny; even when the bunny becomes ragged and old, the boy's feelings are so deep, he can overlook the bunny's unkempt appearance. However when his parents take the bunny, it is quickly replaced, and although the boy will always remember his first bunny, his love was still so easily disregarded. Everything is ephemeral: love which is f More...

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Aug 17, 2011

Luke rated it:

As someone that still has many of his soft toys, and one in particular that I will never give up, this was a very touching story to me. Though, like Toy Story 3, I couldn't get too emotional about it, as I'd never lose or hand over my precious toys. The Velveteen Rabbit longs to be real, but what he doesn't realise is that being real is all in the eye of the beholder. Love is what makes these toys real. I loved the beginning as the rabbit is in a world with a social hierarchy. Other toys look do More...

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Dec 08, 2010

Ranee rated it:

It took me a few minutes to finish this via the net but it took me a good deal of time to cover back my childhood memories of my favorite stuff toy. Like the boy, I owned a stuff animal, a rat named Cookie. Its head was a perfect fit in my neck, best when I'm cuddling it to sleep. Its ears were big, perfect to listen to my wails/woes and dreams. And its eyes had this "know it all" stare enough to bring my conscience back when I did something wrong. In essence, he was my best friend More...

3 comments like (4 people liked it)

Feb 27, 2011

Sweet on Books rated it:

Have your kids ever wondered if their toys could talk or if they could possibly be real? If they have, then they’re not alone. The Toy Story movies, based on just that concept, are popular for a reason! It’s hard to believe that it was 1922 when Margery Williams first addressed that same subject, in The Velveteen Rabbit. Although it was written over 80 years ago, most kids will still relate to this story about a stuffed rabbit that wishes desperately to be real. Told from the point of view of th More...

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