The Velveteen Rabbit · Part 1 of 2
The Boy’s Best Friend
A beloved toy discovers what it means to become Real.
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The Boy’s Best Friend
A little boy received a brown-and-white spotted toy rabbit for Christmas. The Bunny’s ears were lined with pink satin, and his whiskers were made of thread.
The boy played with him, but then more presents arrived and the little Rabbit was forgotten. There were nuts, oranges and clockwork toys as well.
The Boy’s Best Friend
For a long time, the Rabbit lay in the nursery while the expensive toys looked down on him. He was shy and made of simple soft cloth.
They made the Rabbit feel unimportant because he could not buzz, move by clockwork or boast as they did. He did not even know that living rabbits existed.
The Boy’s Best Friend
A kind toy in the nursery was the Skin Horse, an old cloth horse whose coat was worn and whose seams showed. Much of his tail hair had been pulled away.
The Rabbit asked the Skin Horse what it meant to be Real. He wondered whether being Real meant having machinery inside.
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Explore this illustrated story at four reading levels. Each level follows the same essential events.
Collection: Chapter books
Retelling: The Velveteen Rabbit · Part 1 of 2 · Britain
For parents: After Margery Williams’s The Velveteen Rabbit (1922). Retains Christmas neglect, Skin Horse’s teaching, Nana and the missing china dog, the boy’s love, wild rabbits, scarlet fever, the historical doctor’s burning order and gardener’s delay, tear-flower Fairy, becoming a living rabbit, and the boy’s later glimpse without knowing. No burning toy is illustrated; the Fairy intervenes beforehand.
Public-domain source: View the recorded source edition