Such a beautiful, understated classic. Remarkable how much my perception of it has changed as I have passed into adulthood and realized I haven't actually left the target audience at all. 
 On face value, it can seem a sad story at points. There is irreparable change, twists of circumstance, and loss. But there is also a a depth of wisdom that reaches in and holds the heart--both young and old--in different ways according to experience and comprehension. I don't know that it meant to do this, exactly... But I like to think it did. And this reader is glad to accept accidental joy just as readily as joy intended. 
 As a parent, an author, an artist... as a human being, this passage hits a vital nerve: 
 "What is REAL?" asked the Rabbit one day, when they were lying side by side near the nursery fender, before Nana came to tidy the room. "Does it mean having things that buzz inside you and a stick-out handle?" 
 "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." 
 "Does it hurt?" asked the Rabbit. 
 "Sometimes," said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. "When you are Real you don't mind being hurt." 
 "Does it happen all at once, like being wound up," he asked, "or bit by bit?" 
 "It doesn't happen all at once," said the Skin Horse. "You become. It takes a long time. That's why it doesn't happen often to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don't matter at all, because once you are Real you can't be ugly, except to people who don't understand."