The Velveteen Rabbit

The Velveteen Rabbit 

Author: Margery Williams

Illustrator: William Nicholson 

Grade Level: 2-4

Genre: Fantasy 

Awards: IRA/CBC Children's Choice Award 

Summary: This book follows the precious story of Velveteen Rabbit.  Velveteen Rabbit was one of many Christmas gifts a young boy received.  Velveteen Rabbit, after seeing the boys other presents, soon grew discouraged by his lack of mobility and mechanical parts.  He was just a simple rabbit filled with sawdust.  After meeting Skin Horse, Velveteen Rabbit learns that he could one day be made Real.  Velveteen Rabbit began to loose hope when he rarely got to spend time with his owner.  One day, the young boy's china dog he always went to bed with went missing.  His grandmother then grabbed Velveteen Rabbit out of the cupboard and handed him to the boy as a replacement bedtime buddy.  Velveteen Rabbit and the young boy became inseparable.  Velveteen Rabbit went everywhere with the young boy.  As the adventures together continues, Velveteen Rabbit noticed some of his fur worn, color faded, and whiskers missing.  It was at this moment he realized he had become Real (or so he thought).  Velveteen Rabbit noticed the young boy becoming very ill.  Eventually, the doctors instructed that all the boy's toys be burned in order to kill the scarlet fever germs.  As Velveteen Rabbit was out in the cold, waiting to be burned, a single tear fell from his face and hit the ground.  All of a sudden, a flower bloomed and a fairy appeared.  The fairy then used her magical powers to turn Velveteen Rabbit into a real rabbit!  Years later, the young boy came across a rabbit in the woods who looked very familiar.  This rabbit reminded him of a dear friend he had once.  Little did he know he was looking in the eyes of Velveteen Rabbit himself.

Evaluation:  What an amazing story!  I loved this book.  I plan on using this in my classroom in order to share good writing and storytelling with my students.  I think students will enjoy this sweet, heartwarming story of sweet Velveteen Rabbit.

The grade level appropriateness is between second and fourth grade.  The reading level and content is appropriate for these ages.

I was thinking of using this for a creative writing lesson.  Students can write about an inanimate object coming to life and then write the journey the object embarks on.  This would be a way of teaching the TEKS on fiction writing.