The Velveteen Rabbit or How Toys Becaome Real begins on Christmas. So for the next couple of day I thought I would put up a page by page of the the original picture book story with the original illustrations.
But first. a few words about the author. Margery Williams Bianco (1881-1944) was born in London , and first came to the United States when she was nine years old. She lived in the United States and England alternately for the rest of her life. Her first adult novel was published when she was 21, but the Velveteen Rabbit( Pub. 1922) was the first, and best-known, of her thirty children's books. Something I did not know about her was that her last book Forward Commandos! ( 1944), a story of wartime heroism, included an African American Soldier as one of it's Charaters. Acknowlegement of the contribution of blacks to the war effort was extremely rare during that era and that fact was noted in the book's reviews. Margery Willima Bianco did not live to see World War II come to an end. As Forward Commandos! went on sale she died at the age of 63.
THE VELVETEEN RABBIT OR HOW TOYS BECOME REAL
THERE was once a velveteen rabbit, and in the beginning he was really splendid. He was fat and bunchy, as a rabbit should be; his coat was spotted brown and white, he had real thread whiskers, and his ears were lined with pink sateen. On Christmas morning, when he sat wedged in the top of the Boy's stocking, with a sprig of holly between his paws, the effect was charming.
There were other things in the stocking, nuts and oranges and a toy engine, and chocolate almonds and a clockwork mouse, but the Rabbit was quite the best of all. For at least two hours the Boy loved him, and then Aunts and Uncles came to dinner, and there was a great rustling of tissue paper and unwrapping of parcels, and in the excitement of looking at all the new presents the Velveteen Rabbit was forgotten.
( to be continued)
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