Get Real

What does it mean to love and be loved? It means to be authentic and real, like the Velveteen Rabbit. Some younger readers will not recognize it, but for generations “The Velveteen Rabbit” has been listed among the greatest children’s books of all time. Author Margery William took a simple plot and used it to teach a lesson of great profundity, a lesson the book is still teaching after almost a century in print.

As her story goes, a little boy received a lovely stuffed, velveteen rabbit as a Christmas gift. The rabbit, with Disney-like, Toy Story-esque consciousness, understands that he is only a toy. But he wants to be “Real,” a real rabbit, and seeks the key to such a conversion.

The oldest toy in the nursery, the Skin Horse, by means of his great wisdom, is able to tell the Velveteen Rabbit how toys can magically become “Real”…