Yesterday I wrote a post about Tiddler, the book which inspired the nickname of our smallest one.  After much discussion with the three older children, I have chosen a nickname for each of them, and I thought it would be fun to link them to some of our favourite children’s books as well.

Rabbit is our four-year old and our only girl.  There are no shortage of children’s books with rabbit in the title, but The Velveteen Rabbit is one I particularly like.  When I was thinking about writing this post, I realised that I hadn’t read it to any of the children for quite a while and when I showed it to my daughter she didn’t recognise it!  This is possibly the downside of having a houseful of books – we have so many that special ones can sometimes disappear for a while.  In fact, it’s gone missing again in the last two days…

The Velveteen Rabbit is a classic children’s book, written by Margery Williams and illustrated by William Nicholson.  It is the story of a toy rabbit who becomes real through the love of a small boy.  “Real isn’t how you are made…It’s a thing that happens to you.  When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become real.”  Beautifully written and illustrated, it is as relevant to children today as when it was first published in 1922.  It is an ideal bedtime story for little ones, and also an enjoyable read for older children.  Now I just need to find my copy…