A favourite book.

The Velveteen Rabbit (Or How Toys Become Real) by Margery Williams. Illustrations by the artist William Nicholson.

First published: 1922. Our copy: 1991.

I love this story. I love the illustrations. I love the font in the book. I love that our copy comes in a little case and cost only 20p from a charity shop.

My daughter couldn't listen to me read this when she was five, because it made her too sad. She never knew the end of the story until she was seven years old. She would pick it up and look at it, ask me to read it and never make it past page 22.

The story, for those that don't know, is about a toy rabbit who is given to a boy as a Christmas present and becomes the boys best friend, he becomes worn and old and loved (we have many old worn and loved toys in this house.) The boy is very ill with scarlet fever and his toys must be destroyed. I won't tell you what happens next....

All of my children love this book, and it works on many levels. As a simple story, as a historical reference and as a starting point to talk about illness. That last point is not so good, as OD was convinced for a really long time that she was going down with the dreaded illness, and was always on the look-out for symptoms.

When ever we read this, I notice that they spend some time after wards eying their toys suspiciously, checking to see if they have moved when they are not looking, and wondering what goes on when they aren't about. As MB put it "because you never know...."

*update* this is part of the spring book parade (I forgot to mention this earlier, doh.)