THE VELVETEEN ANTEATER

It's a long time since I read the original book, The Velveteen Rabbit, and I remember very little about it other than it was immensely harrowing – I recall being traumatised by the melancholy, heartbreaking, ineffable sadness of the story.

It was even more traumatic than when Christopher Robin left Pooh and Piglet and everyone in the Hundred Acre Wood to go to school…

I told Wilson I was sure his latest book was lovely, but I'd really rather not read it… or look at the pictures…or hear anything more about it.

Actually, I've got a big lump in my throat right now just from thinking about it, bringing to mind as it does many sad memories…

He took this news very well, saying that it was indeed unendurably melancholy, and confessed that he couldn't bear to look inside it himself!
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Here is a wonderful reimagining of The Velveteen Rabbit by Japanese artist Komako Sakai:
https://www.brainpickings.org/2015/02/23/the-velveteen-rabbit-komako-sakai/
and a page that ponders exactly why the book makes us cry:
https://www.dismantlemag.com/2017/07/30/why-does-velveteen-rabbit-make-us-cry/