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Title: The Velveteen Rabbit Board Book by Margery Williams Bianco, Patricia Pingry, Katherine Wilson ISBN: 0-8249-4173-X Publisher: Candy Cane Press Pub. Date: 15 January, 2000 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $6.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.8 (50 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: A classic tale still going strong.
Comment: It has been seventy-seven years since this story was first published and it continues to be popular with each generation. I am amazed at how often I've read it to the children of today. It is the classic story of a stuffed rabbit who, after many years, becomes a real rabbit through love. It is a book that also should be on the shelf of any serious student of children literature.
Rating: 5
Summary: I still love this book...I always will
Comment: These are the days of Sony Playstation 2 and Harry Potter, activites that do not really ever try to tell a great story that also gives a lesson without being preachy.
The Velveteen Rabbit is heartwrenchingly beautiful. The Rabbit who yearns to be Real and whose love for the boy was unconditional is both imaginative and sad. I cannot read this book without a lump coming to my throat and being transported to simpler days when the love of a toy was the greatest thing in the whole world.
This is a book with an ending that is mixed, that touches on the ambiguity of life and loss. But there is also hope of a new beginning. And I think children can understand that and grow from it.
I cherish this book deeply.
Rating: 4
Summary: Little rabbit in the woods
Comment: Color me a tiny bit surprised. A tiny bit. In remembering the story of "The Velveteen Rabbit" I had placed it somewhere on par with syrupy sappy stories like "The Giving Tree" or "Love You Forever". I had believed for quite some time that this book was an old but nonetheless overly sentimental tale that even the most dewey-eyed of youngsters would have some difficulty swallowing. Then I reread it recently and I found that I was not correct in all of my assumptions. Yes, "The Velveteen Rabbit" has its flaws. It is prone to a couple ooey-gooey moments here and there, but on the whole it is a strong well-written work. This is not a book that has earned its title as one of the best known and beloved works of fiction for children lightly.
All children wish that their toys were real and could have feelings like the rest of us. This kind of desire is what has spawned everything from the movie "Toy Story" to the classic Newbery Award winning book, "Hitty: Her First 100 Years". In the case of "The Velveteen Rabbit", this wish is taken to an entirely different level. In the beginning, a boy is given a fluffy stuffed rabbit made of softest velveteen. The rabbit is told by an old skin horse about the wonders of one day becoming real, and it becomes the rabbit's deepest wish. As the boy grows to love the rabbit and wear him down, the rabbit feels that he has indeed grown real. One day the boy comes down with scarlet fever and it is necessary to burn the rabbit along with all his other toys. Fortunately, the rabbit is saved by a magic fairy that turns him into a real rabbit. A little time later the boy is out playing when he sees a rabbit that looks just like the old toy he used to own, little knowing that his toy has come back briefly to bid him one last look.
I'm particularly attached to the editions of this tale that are accompanied by Michael Hague's illustrations. Very popular in the 1980s, Hague has the ability to draw illustrations that are at once touching and at the same time a little realistic. His pictures are filled with little touches and details that clever eyes might enjoy locating. For example, a page displaying the velveteen rabbit and other toys shows a small frog toy looking very much like the Frog character from Hague's version of "Wind in the Willows". On the bookshelf sits his edition of "The Wizard of Oz", easily identifiable by its spine. As for the characters in the pictures, they are delightful. The rabbit grows floppier and more raggedy as the book goes on (not suprising when the boy enjoys dragging it about by one ear). The boy himself is a ruddy faced youth, as apt to tease the bunny as he is to lavish it with love and affection. Hague has a way with light and color that make these pictures virtually leap off of their pages, and the result is a beautiful and elegant series of prints.
I am pleased to report that "The Velveteen Rabbit" is just as important today as it has ever been. This beautiful tale should always be accompanied by beautiful pictures, and so we are fortunate that Michael Hague lent it his skills. I have no doubt that your children will be entranced by this tale. I have even less doubt that you will find something in it yourself to make you pause and think over. Simple and eloquent.
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Title: Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak ISBN: 0060254920 Publisher: HarperCollins Pub. Date: 09 November, 1988 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
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Title: The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein ISBN: 0060256656 Publisher: Harpercollins Juvenile Books Pub. Date: June, 1964 List Price(USD): $15.99 |
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Title: Corduroy by Don Freeman ISBN: 0670241334 Publisher: Viking Press Pub. Date: March, 1968 List Price(USD): $15.99 |
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Title:Velveteen Rabbit Anniversary Edition ASIN: B00008J2J2 Publisher: Windham Hill Records Pub. Date: 01 April, 2003 List Price(USD): $18.98 Comparison N/A, buy it from Amazon for $14.99 |
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Title: The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams, Lou Fancher, Steve Johnson ISBN: 0689841345 Publisher: Atheneum Pub. Date: 01 October, 2002 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
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