Interesting lines from The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams

A favourite book from my childhood, apart from all my Enid Blyton books, is this book by Margery Williams ” The Velveteen Rabbit”. It is a story about how toys, like people,become REAL when they experience love.

The following is a conversation in the nursery between the Skin Horse and The Velveteen Rabbit:-

“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.”

“Does it happen all at once, like being wound up,” he asked, “or bit by bit?”

“It doesn’t happen all at once,” said the Skin Horse. “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 the 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.”

The Skin Horse gets me every time. This is one of the books, I will definitely pass on to my daughter.

Do you have a favourite book? Which one?

Image credit: https://www.amazon.com.au/The-Velveteen-Rabbit/dp/1684220874