I love children's books that can be read hundreds of times without my tiring of them--the ones whose pages become worn but that one can never really bear to part with. They're incredibly entertaining for children but also contain deeper, subtle adult messages. Those are the sorts of books I enjoyed as a child, that I've also come to love as adult as my understanding of them deepened. They offer more than familiarity and comfort. A good children's book speaks to some aspect of how we understand the world or ourselves in it. For me, The Velveteen Rabbit is one of those books. It's a story of a toy bunny who becomes real. It's his love of a little boy and that little boy's love of him that's so complete and magical that through their love he becomes real. Love remains even when the object of it changes or is removed; it is not experienced without pain and an acknowledgment of an otherness. It's a sweet wonderful story that I will never stop loving. ( )