At what age does a child learn what is real? How long does the blurring between fantasy and reality persist, for a you…At what age does a child learn what is real? How long does the blurring between fantasy and reality persist, for a young child? And when harsh reality kicks in with a vengeance, isn’t a little bit of magic lost forever?The loss of childhood innocence is always poignant. Adults sometimes continue to live in our imaginations and dreams through stories, so we may manage to hang on to a little bit of this magic through our adulthood.The Velveteen Rabbit (or How Toys Become Real), is a much-loved classic book from 1922. The story speaks to children, especially the shy introverts or dreamers, who love the magic of it all. For adults, it may lift us back into the dreamy world of childhood, when anything is possible, and nothing is set in stone. It deals both with what is “real”, and also explores the world of the imagination, and possibilities beyond the literal truth. In some ways, it encourages the child to think about the bigger questions of life and the universe. And, as with all good fantasy, it poses the question, “What if?”The author Margery Williams Bianco drew from her own experience to write The Velveteen Rabbit. She had been born in London, but her father died when she was seven years old, and the family went to America to live just two years later. She actually became a professional writer at 19, but she only started writing for children much later, when her own children had grown up.After her early emigration to the United States, Margery lived in a rural Pennsylvania farming community. At nineteen she returned to London, to try to sell some of her work. Some of it was published, but none was very successful. While visiting her publisher, Margery Williams met Francesco Bianco, an Italian living in London, who was employed as the manager of one of the book departments. The two were …