“Real isn’t how you are made,” said the Skin Horse. “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.” — Margery Williams, The Velveteen Rabbit

It’s a simple fable about two toys, a velveteen rabbit, and a skin horse, but in it’s 40 or so pages, this book holds magic and wonder, innocence, and the essence of love. I first encountered it as a small child – another of the books my grandfather read to me. As an obnoxious teenager a television show brought it back into my life, and though I’ve never really paid it much attention, it’s lurked in the back of my brain seemingly forever.

I offer it now, as a tribute to my grandparents, both deceased, and to the legacy of literacy they gave to others as volunteers in the Right to Read program at their community library in New Jersey.

Whatever else they were, they were both Real.