By Margery Williams, illustrated by William Nicholson (Egmont Books)
ISBN 10: 1-40522-228-X ISBN 13: 978-140522-228-0
Could you name the Top Twenty children’s books of all time? How about the Best Ten? What about the most influential? Or perhaps best illustrated?
Stop counting on your fingers, these are rhetorical questions. The point I want to make is that in any of those categories the book under discussion here will appear, and near the top, too.
Originally published in 1922 it tells the story of a cheap, poorly made toy rabbit given to a young boy as Christmas present, and the deep yearning the toy has to experience what it is to be real. Other toys explain but it is not the same as knowing.
As the simple, dutiful toy learns to be loved, experiences the terror of personal loss and eventually the heartbreak of being forgotten, the clear evocative illustrations of William Nicholson intensify the gently wistful inevitability of the mesmerising prose.
This elegaically simple tale of losing magic to gain maturity has a happy ending that sensitive readers can only yearn for, and briefly rekindle, by reading this story again and again and again. Even if you have no children, it is worth reading this story aloud…
This slim masterpiece has moved millions of readers over the decades, and the subtextual message that it’s okay to feel sad sometimes is one we should all remember. At once warm, sad and happy, this marvel is a book no child should ever be denied.
Illustrations © 1922 Elizabeth Banks.