Becoming Real: The True Story of the Velveteen Rabbit

Gr 1-4–This is the story of writer and dreamer Margery Williams. As a young child, Williams did not attend school; she read widely from her father’s library and used her imagination to create kingdoms in her nursery. When her father dies, it, “casts a shadow over her world,” and Williams is devastated. As an adult she writes three novels for adults. When she gets married, she moves to Paris and has children. Watching her own children at play, she rediscovers her creativity and imagination. The First World War begins, and the family moves to Italy. At the end of the war the world recovers, and Williams imagines stories in everything she sees. The toys in her nursery have always been important to her, and she sees her children with their favorite play “buddies.” She remembers the hours she spent playing with a few of her beloved stuffed animals and begins to write, “of love, of loss, of becoming real,” and the velveteen rabbit is born. Escobar’s art was created digitally; the end papers feature the various toys made famous in The Velveteen Rabbit. A bibliography and a page of social and emotional activities to try with toys is included.