The Velveteen Rabbit, or How Toys Become Real, is a children’s book written by Margery Williams and illustrated by William Nicholson. It tells the tale of a stuffed rabbit, given to a small boy at Christmas,  who learns from a wise old toy horse that toys can become real due to love from children. By chance one night he is given to his owner to sleep with in place of a lost toy and soon becomes the boy’s favorite.  The boy thinks of him as real,but the toy rabbit meets some live rabbits one summer and learns that he cannot hop and so, alas, he is not real. The boy contracts scarlet fever and the rabbit sits with him through his recovery. The doctor prescribes a visit to the seaside and orders all his possessions be burnt to disinfect his room in his absence. Left outdoors in a sack overnight, the saddened rabbit weeps and areal tear falls to the ground, generating a flower containing a Nursery Magic Fairy who emerges and tells him he has become “Real” to the boy that she will make him “Real” to everyone. She takes him to the forest to meet other rabbits,gives him a kiss, and, voila, he becomes a real rabbit and scampers off with the others.  The next spring, the rabbit returns to see the boy, who sees a clear resemblance to his old toy rabbit. The story has rightly become a children’s classic and appears on the National Education Association’s list of “Teacher’s Top 100 Books for Children”.

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