Our Favorite Stuffed Animals From Kids' Books

by Amy Lee

The real Christopher Robin's toys

Not every child has a stuffed animal for a friend. But for those who have one, or many, furry companions to play pretend with, these eventually-tattered, well-loved toys can be more than just fabric and stuffing. 

Children's book authors have always known this to be true. A.A. Milne, author of the 'Winnie the Pooh' series, based his stories around his own son, Christopher Robin. Pooh, Tigger, Piglet, Eeyore and others have their origin as the inanimate creatures you see above. 

Patrick (who is himself, a teddy bear) plays with a tiny stuffed human at bedtime

In many stories concerning the lives of stuffed animals and their human owners, toys must be alone with their playmate in order to come alive. In other cases, the toys can only come to life when no human is present (as in Toy Story or The Velveteen Rabbit). 

There is, for example, Sara Crewe's first doll, Emily from A Little Princess:

   "Oh, papa!" she cried. "There is Emily!"

   A flush had risen to her face and there was an expression in her green-gray eyes as if she had just recognized someone she was intimate with and fond of.

   "She is actually waiting there for us!" she said. "Let us go in to her."

   "Dear me," said Captain Crewe, "I feel as if we ought to have someone to introduce us."

   "You must introduce me and I will introduce you," said Sara. "But I knew her the minute I saw her -- so perhaps she knew me, too."

Later, after Sara's father is ruined, she must work as a scullery maid, always hungry and tired. She turns to Emily again, but is less satisfied with her response. 

   She looked at the staring glass eyes and complacent face, and suddenly a sort of heartbroken rage seized her. She lifted her little savage hand and knocked Emily off the chair, bursting into a passion of sobbing -- Sara who never cried.

   "You are nothing but a doll!" she cried. "Nothing but a doll -- doll -- doll! You care for nothing. You are stuffed with sawdust. You never had a heart. Nothing could ever make you feel. You are a doll!"

   Emily lay on the floor, with her legs ignominiously doubled up over her head, and a new flat place on the end of her nose; but she was calm, even dignified. Sara hid her face in her arms. The rats in the wall began to fight and bite each other and squeak and scramble. Melchisedec was chastising some of his family.

...

   "You can't help being a doll," she said with a resigned sigh, "any more than Lavinia and Jessie can help not having any sense. We are not all made alike. Perhaps you do your sawdust best." And she kissed her and shook her clothes straight, and put her back upon her chair.

The Velveteen Rabbit

She regains her composure, but at a price. We experience the same pain of new maturity in the classic story, A Velveteen Rabbit, about a precious toy that becomes, over time, less precious to his owner. But, as those who've read the tale know, to have been loved so much lends the toy its own immortality. 

On a final note, we couldn't end this post without a little tribute to Calvin and Hobbes, the long-running comic strip about a boy and his tiger. No human was a better friend (or worse Calvinball opponent).