There are several things that seem contrived and unrealistic [in The Velvet Room]; yet somehow the author manages to transform lack of reality into a fairy-tale like quality so skillfully that the combination emerges as a meaningful story of an ordinary little girl who enjoys the fleeting happiness of escapism and emerges a more mature individual.

Patricia H. Allen, "Grades 3-6: 'The Velvet Room'," in School Library Journal, an appendix to Library Journal (reprinted from the February, 1965 issue of School Library Journal, published by R. R. Bowker Co./ A Xerox Corporation; copyright © 1965), Vol. 11, No. 6, February, 1965, p. 50.