The Velveteen Rabbit characters

Appears from the start

A small stuffed toy rabbit made of soft velveteen, given to a little boy as a Christmas present. At first shy and unsure of his own worth among the flashier, mechanical toys in the nursery, the rabbit longs to understand what he is and whether he can ever be more than an ordinary plaything. Gentle and sincere, he becomes devoted to the boy who owns him and yearns, above all, to become "Real," a mysterious change the older nursery toys speak of.

Appears from the start

The young child who receives the velveteen rabbit and, after a time, takes the once-overlooked toy to heart, carrying it everywhere and loving it above all his other playthings. His steady, wholehearted love is what gives the rabbit meaning, though the boy is unaware of the deeper effect his affection has. When he falls seriously ill, the events that follow turn on how much the rabbit has come to matter to him.

Appears from the start

The oldest and wisest toy in the nursery, a worn, patched horse who has lived there far longer than the others. Patient and kindly, he explains to the velveteen rabbit the secret the nursery toys pass down: that a toy becomes "Real" not through how it is made but by being truly and lastingly loved by a child, a slow process that often leaves a toy shabby and worn along the way.

Appears from the start

A gentle magical figure who appears near the story's end to care for toys that have been genuinely loved. She embodies the tale's promise that such love is never wasted, and she has the power to grant a well-loved toy a fuller kind of Real than the nursery toys had imagined.