The Velveteen Rabbit

Name: The Velveteen Rabbit
Author: Margery Williams

Il coniglio di velluto

Original author

Margery Williams

Adapted by

Line by Line Publishing,

Read The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams in Italian and English, a parallel text graded reader with audio. Available in CEFR levels A2 and B1.

About this book

One Christmas a velveteen rabbit arrives in the nursery, plump and splendid for a moment, then set aside among the fancier toys that think themselves superior. What he learns comes from the Skin Horse, the oldest and shabbiest toy in the room, who explains the strange arithmetic of the place. "When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real." And being loved, the Skin Horse warns, means your hair gets loved off and your joints go loose — and none of it matters, except to people who don't understand.

So begins the Rabbit's longing, and the deep, careless love of the Boy who takes him to bed, carries him through June evenings in the wood, and insists to anyone who'll listen that "He isn't a toy. He's REAL!" Margery Williams tells it tenderly, with a fable's clear eye, trusting a child to feel the weight of it before he can name it.

Around the Boy move the brisk Nana, the wild rabbits who dance in bracken like frosted silver, and a Fairy made of pearl and dew-drops. The book asks a question at its heart: what love costs, and whether being worn thin by it is a loss or the whole point. It leaves that question open in the reader's hands.

Available editions

Short, concrete sentences for early learners.

223 sentences

Original English — Longer sentences and a wider vocabulary.

223 sentences

Read a sample

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Details

Adapted byLine by Line Publishing

Published byLine by Line Publishing

Original languageEnglish

SubjectChildren's fantasy fable

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