VELVETEEN RABBIT

   "Aksaminy Królik, czyli jak zabawki stają się prawidziwe" (Eng. The Velveteen Rabbit or How Toys Become Real) is a British children's book written by Margery Williams and illustrated by William Nicholson. The book was published in 1922 and has been republished many times since. Sentences from the book have been cited in other books and films and the story of the stuffed rabbit has been filmed several times. 

   Before I received the book I found a family film from 2009 about the Velveteen Rabbit. I watched it with my kids as it was not age-limited. The film was not an exact adaptation of the book but was following the main theme. My daughter was strongly touched by the moment when a sack with the rabbit inside was thrown into a fire. She kept trembling and crying even after the movie ended. It was pointless to explain that the rabbit became real and escaped from the fire. When I received the book I hid it from my kids as I didn't want the bad emotions to resurface. I read the book in one evening when my kids were sleeping and I was enchanted by the history of the velveteen rabbit. There was no violence, no throwing into a fire but a touching story about a boy's love for a soft toy.

   The stuffed rabbit was given to a small boy as a Christmas present . At first the boy preferred to play with his modern and mechanical toys instead of the old-fashioned velveteen rabbit. The rabbit felt lonely but in the boy's room he met Skin Horse, who was the wisest and oldest toy. He told the rabbit about toys magically becoming real due to love from children. "Real isn't how you are made (...). 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." 

   One night, the boy's nanny gave the rabbit to the boy to sleep with, in place of a lost toy. The rabbit became the boy's favorite toy. Time passed, and the rabbit became shabbier but happy. When the boy came down with scarlet fever, the rabbit was sitting with him as he recovered. The doctor ordered that the boy should be taken to the seaside and that his room should be disinfected - all his books and toys burnt, including the velveteen rabbit. The rabbit was bundled into a sack and left out in the garden overnight, where he reflected on his life with his boy. The toy rabbit started to cry, a real tear dropped on the ground, and a marvelous flower appeared. A fairy stepped out of the flower and comforted the velveteen rabbit. She said that, because he had become Real to the boy who truly loved him, she would take him away with her and make him into Real to everyone. The fairy took the rabbit to the forest, where they met other rabbits. She gave the velveteen rabbit a kiss and he changed into a real rabbit. 

"The Velveteen Rabbit" by Margery Williams