The expiration of the copyright on The Velveteen Rabbit (1922), and
some obscure meeting of minds, has brought us four new editions -
all in full color, all but the Plume/Godine entry in picture-book
dimensions with vignetted as well as full-page illustrations (and
full pages of type). The original William Nicholson pictures
probably never appealed to children as much as to adults (the
format, certainly, was off-putting); but no one of these four
artists manages, as Nicholson did, to bring the Velveteen Rabbit to
life. And if the Velveteen Rabbit isn't a character (as, for
instance, Don Freeman's Corduroy and Beady Bear are), the story
lacks emotional conviction. The Atkinson/Knopf edition has enticing
endpapers - the Velveteen Rabbit, at dawn, gazing longingly into
the garden - that better capture the poignance of his situation
than anything inside. The text is wrapped around many small
vignettes - of the other toys or the other, "real" rabbits - so
that, with its stained-glass coloration, the book has the look of a
late-19th-century illuminated text. But insofar as the pictures
illustrate the story, they run to prettiness and easy
sentimentality. Michael Hague's illustrations are of the Jessie
Willcox Smith, minutely detailed sort - the Velveteen Rabbit, by
contrast, is probably the most completely stuffed of the lot. The
Plume/Godine book has a smaller, rather pleasant format (though the
text is in a very small type too); the cutesy, vacant pictures,
however, are greeting-card art. As for the Tien/S&S version,
it's wishy-washy in every respect - weak pastel colors, limp
drawing, banal details (lots of butterflies, for instance). But
every now and again Tien does try to give the story some dramatic
punch and, however clumsily, to convey the discarded and forgotten
rabbit's misery. The period design too, doesn't have the class of
the Atkinson/Knopf edition, but it does have a homely appeal.
(Kirkus Reviews)
Nursery magic is very strange and wonderful, and only those playthings that are old and wise and experienced like the Skin Horse understand all about it.
Like the Skin Horse, Margery Williams understood how toys--and people--become real through the wisdom and experience of love. This reissue of a favorite classic, with the original story and illustrations as they first appeared in 1922, will work its magic for all who read it.
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