The Velveteen Rabbit

I decided to read The Velveteen Rabbit to Katie. It's one of the readers for Sonlight Core 1 and I'm trying to get a little jump on the coming school year. I remembered the story of the Velveteen Rabbit, and I vaguely remembered that I had thought it was really sad. I read it to myself before I read it to her. It is a little sad, but in the end, the bunny is real and happy, so all's well that ends well, right?

So I start reading the story to Katie. When we got to the part where the little boy has scarlet fever and the doctor says everything in the room has to be burned to get rid of the germs, Katie said, "I think this story is getting sad." Then we got to the part where the velveteen rabbit is sitting in an old sack in the yard, waiting to be burned up and wondering why it all had to end like this, I saw Katie reach up and wipe her eyes. She never made a sound, which was even sadder; if she'd been wailing, it wouldn't have affected me nearly as much. I tried to continue on with the story, then found to my surprise that I couldn't get the words out. I hugged her and said, "YOU can't cry because you're making me cry and then I can't finish the story!" I tried to read some more, and still couldn't get my voice to stop quavering and cracking. Luckily Kerry heard all of this, so he came into the room, looked at our tear filled eyes and said, "You two are so sweet!" Then he had to pause for a moment before he could read the rest of the story to us.

I think Katie is like me. Even though The Velveteen Rabbit has a happy ending, I'll bet when she grows up she'll say, "I never really liked that story."

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