That Rabbit Belongs to Emily Brown (review)

"That rabbit" is actually a toy named Stanley, and he's the loyal companion to young Emily on all her imaginative escapades. Stanley's stellar attributes haven't gone unnoticed, though: the covetous Queen repeatedly sends emissaries requesting that Emily relinquish "that Bunnywunny" and accept in exchange a "brand-new golden teddy bear" and an escalating sequence of gifts. After Emily's constant refusals, the Queen finally resorts to burglary, but it'll take more than that to separate Stanley and Emily Brown. Though the storytelling is a touch on the arch side, the solid structure (including chantable repetitions) and the imaginative touches make this substantive as well as whimsical. Young audiences may consider the Queen undeserving of the clemency she receives (after retrieving Stanley, Emily tells the Queen the secret of transforming a soulless toy into a true friend), but this is a topic close enough to their own hearts that it's a good place to take first baby steps into empathy. Layton's illustrations deliver the story from the specter of saccharinity and fortify it with a vivid and eccentric edge. Emily is all wiry thick scrawl, while Stanley is a dawdlingly outlined mass of threadbare cloth that effectively conveys the shapelessness of a thoroughly loved toy; in its mix of collage elements from old illustrations, photographs, and patterns alongside the informal contemporary scribbles, Emily's world has enough formality to make the fantasy authoritative and believable. Youngsters who roll their eyes at the length and sentiment of The Velveteen Rabbit will find this a congenial alternative toy story.