Home Feed
Home
Search
Search
Add Review, Blurb, Quote
Add
Activity
Activity
Profile
Profile
Story of Babar: The Little Elephant
Story of Babar: The Little Elephant | Jean de Brunhoff
35 posts | 50 read | 3 to read
Translated from Jean de Brunhoff's original French, the adventures of theworld's most popular elephant and his friends have enchanted an threegenerations. Delightfully amusing illustrations make this short collection ofclassic Babar tales a book to treasure for children young and old. "With manyabsurd and funny pictures, these tales of the popular elephant furnish hours ofenjoyment to the young person."-- "Elementary English"
Amazon Indiebound Barnes and Noble WorldCat Goodreads LibraryThing
quote
olivia.d
post image

blurb
olivia.d

I would not use this book in my classroom. Not much of a lesson I can pull from this, a little long and don‘t think my kids would pay attention for it

review
olivia.d
Mehso-so

Good story with great illustrations. I liked when he ended up living with the old lady

quote
mlowe386221

“My good friends we are seeking a King. Why not choose Babar?“ I loved this quote because it shows Babar's resilience after going through such loss of his mother.

blurb
mlowe386221

I would use this in my classroom to have tough discussions of death and loss.

review
mlowe386221
Pickpick

The Story of Babar by Jean Brunhoff is a great book for children. This book was published in 1931. It goes through the tragedy of an elephant whose mother dies from a hunter. Later the elephant returns to the jungle and becomes the king. I loved the illustrations as there were a lot of them.

review
DivineDiana
post image
Pickpick

Yes, the part involving a gun was disturbing, but for the most part the colorful, delightful illustrations told a story of friendship, understanding, and love. I enjoyed this foray into Babar‘s world. In fact, I have a second volume to share! Thank you once again @TheBookHippie for this challenge! #childrensclassicread2023 #192025 #1933

Librarybelle Hooray!! 2y
47 likes1 comment
blurb
DivineDiana
post image

Last chance! Stopped by the Library today and decided to pick up this book since it is the February selection for #childrensclassicread2023

TheBookHippie 🧡🐘🧡 2y
44 likes1 comment
review
julieclair
post image
Pickpick

I loved this book as a child, and perhaps that is why I still find it charming as an adult, despite the underlying political messages of which I am now aware. Thank you to @TheBookHippie for choosing this as a selection for #ChildrensClassicRead2023, and especially for the excellent research about modern interpretations of the book. Fascinating.
#SayMyName @Clwojick

Clwojick Fun! I loved this show as a kid 🐘 2y
31 likes1 comment
review
PurpleyPumpkin
post image
Pickpick

I had some time this morning to sit down and read this month‘s #ChildrensClassicRead2023 pick. This simple tale with the fun artwork brought back so many fond memories. Thanks @TheBookHippie for providing all the added reading and opening my eyes to other interpretations of this book. 3/5⭐️
(February 20, 2023)

TheBookHippie ♥️ 2y
45 likes1 comment
blurb
AnneCecilie
post image

After reading about ways to interpret this book, I‘m not sure how I feel about. I see the issues, but apparently this is a book for kids older than 3 yrs and I‘m not sure they would. About an elephant that escapes the hunter that killed his mum, and ends up in the city for a while before he returns home to be king.
#ChildrensClassicRead2023
@TheBookHippie

blurb
tpixie
post image

I love the illustrations. Baby Babar is adorable. “That‘s him, digging the sand with a shell.”. The story is a little harsh for kids- like Bambi, the mother is shot! Apparently no child in literature can go on an adventure without a dead mom!
#ChildrensClassicRead2023

review
mrp27
post image
Mehso-so

#childrensclassicread2023

I‘m quite familiar with Babar as a classic children‘s book character and he is quite cute. However I have no memory of reading Babar or having it read to me as a kid so I‘m counting this as my first read and I was disappointed. Outside of Babar himself I didn‘t love the illustrations and I found the story boring. I‘m trying to keep in mind that this story is 92 years old and although it may have once been

mrp27 considered innovative for its time today it‘s just meh. 2y
TheBookHippie It has not aged well ..I am still reading through the stories and researching the massive articles on it. Fascinating, all of it. 2y
DGRachel I remember the children‘s books I bailed on as a child, that 5/6 year old me found too boring. Babar and Curious George were two I could not get into. 2y
See All 7 Comments
mrp27 @TheBookHippie Agreed! Interesting indeed and I loved the articles you posted, great information. (edited) 2y
mrp27 @DGRachel Yeah, hard to see how these became such a classic when the story is so dull. Hard to imagine any young child now or then being entertained by these books. 2y
batsy @DGRachel I missed out on Babar as a kid but I couldn't take to Curious George, as well! 2y
tpixie I also did not get into Curious George or Babar as a child- I read a few, but they didn‘t steal my heart @DGRachel @mrp27 @batsy 2y
28 likes7 comments
review
batsy
post image
Panpan

Never read Babar as a kid, never paid much attention to it, but as an adult I can only see the weird bourgeois assimilation angle. The narrative has him watch his mother die, escape from the wild into the city to become a "civilised" gentrified elephant, then head back into the wild in splendour to marry his cousin & rule over the rest. To be fair, the art is lovely. But otherwise, kind of an iffy story. #ChildrensClassicRead2023 @TheBookHippie

batsy Yet another eye-opening children's read and an intriguing comparison to Bambi. This essay by Faiza Guene on Babar is a lovely piece https://lithub.com/on-babar-model-of-integration-or-crumbling-myth-2/ (I enjoyed Guene's Kiffe Kiffe Tomorrow.) 2y
AlaMich I have never read it either, but it sounds weird from your description. 2y
batsy @AlaMich As a kid I would have probably just loved the adorable elephant! But now there's an underlying message that is not great. And looking it up I see that it's something that's been discussed for some time. 2y
See All 19 Comments
Bookish_Gal I loved the book as a kid. Show too. Since my class on analyzing children books, my whole view has switched upside down. While I‘d never say I saw that as a kid, it‘s so clear as an adult. 2y
GingerAntics I‘m seeing a lot of the problems now, too. It‘s kind of sad. 2y
TheBookHippie Ooo thanks for the link. I‘m always amazed at what we learn in this journey of reading children‘s classics. 2y
batsy @Bookish_Gal Yes! It's definitely hard to see it as a kid, I think. Because it's stuff that comes with experience and knowing how the world works. But a great book for parents and kids to discuss together. 2y
batsy @GingerAntics It's sad when beloved childhood faves take on a different tone in adulthood. I hope you read Guene's essay that I linked in the replies. I love that she mentions that she'll still treasure what she loved about it as a child. 2y
batsy @TheBookHippie Yes! And I found it really illuminating that this came after Bambi. Two very different books using animal story analogies with an underlying theme on survival. 2y
batsy @TheBookHippie *of survival 2y
TheBookHippie @batsy I agree one hundred percent!!! 2y
merelybookish "kind of an iffy story" ? #understatement 2y
AnnR A good review @Batsy. I didn't care for tale either. Even the anthropomorphized illustrations bothered me. What baby elephant who had recently watched his mother be killed would immediately head to the city and seek out a tailor's shop to buy a suit? Beyond the gentrification issue, in a way, the story just seemed silly. 2y
GingerAntics @batsy I can‘t even remember what I loved about it as a child. That‘s the weird part. 2y
batsy @Ann_Reads Great point! It was overly twee and Babar is a blank slate of a character. 2y
Suet624 My mother never read Babar to me - she was a Just So Stories fan. But I read the book to two of my kids and a stepson. My only answer to why I never questioned what I was reading is that I had too many kids, too many jobs, too much drink by the time bedtime came along (that was a long time ago now) and my brain was fried. 😊 2y
batsy @Suet624 Oh for sure, Sue. We do the best we can 🙂 There was a lot of racism in the Enid Blyton books I loved as a kid and that my nephews used to ask me to read to them—they grew out of it faster than I did and identified the troubling bits when they were older. So maybe the kids are alright 💕 2y
tpixie @Suet624 ❤️😂❤️ 2y
85 likes1 stack add19 comments
review
erzascarletbookgasm
post image
Panpan

Another children‘s book I‘ve never read when I was young. As an adult reading it for the first time, I find this not funny. I don‘t know what the author is trying to tell..Babar, whose mother recently got killed by a hunter, escapes to town, met a kind, old, rich lady who gave him lots of money to spend, and Babar suddenly feels the need to get fancy clothes and assimilated to society. And when he returns to the forest, he..⬇️

erzascarletbookgasm …is made King for his ‘new‘ ways. 🤔 Sorry, I do not feel amused. I‘m glad I did not read this to my children when they were young.
#ChildrensClassicRead2023
2y
batsy What an interesting review! I wonder how I'll feel about it. Somehow I never read it as a kid or an adult, though I've heard it referenced so many times. 2y
Suet624 You‘re so right. 2y
See All 7 Comments
TheBookHippie Isn‘t it fascinating what we find and what memory can do if we‘ve read it before? I‘ve not read it before but was told it was satire for colonialism so I‘m anxious to start this today. 2y
KathyWheeler I read it as a kid and loved it but I never read it to or bought it for my own kids. I‘m not sure what I‘d think about it now. 2y
batsy I just read it and I completely agree! 2y
erzascarletbookgasm @batsy It‘s a weird read, isn‘t it. 2y
55 likes7 comments
review
IndoorDame
post image
Pickpick

It was such a sweet diversion to revisit Babar this morning! The story I remember having read to me most often was one of the later ones in the series, so I enjoyed seeing where it all began. I‘m tempted to continue on with the next few books to get to some of the scenes I remember most fondly. #ChildrensClassicRead2023 @TheBookHippie

Suet624 Go for it! 2y
IndoorDame @Suet624 just requested the next two from the library 😁 2y
Suet624 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻💕 2y
See All 7 Comments
Leftcoastzen Kitty love !😻 2y
IndoorDame @Leftcoastzen she and her brother are being lovely company for this bitterly cold day 🐈🐈‍⬛ 2y
TheBookHippie Yay ♥️🐘! I took a few out of the library I may get as many as possible this month 🙃👀. 2y
tpixie 🖤 🐈‍⬛ 🖤 2y
61 likes7 comments
review
Butterfinger
post image
Pickpick

I have never read Babar. Interesting. 1933 #CenturyReads

Jari-chan Childhood Memories! 😍 4y
Roary47 Oh man. I never read any of the books, but loved the show as a kids. 🥰 4y
46 likes2 comments
review
JenlovesJT47
Histoire de Babar le petit lphant | Jean de Brunhoff, Laurent Brunhoff
post image
Pickpick

This is $2.99 on kindle and well worth it in my opinion. The story of Babar is a great way for me to practice my French and is also fun to read with adorable illustrations. 5⭐️

#LearningFrench

🐘🇫🇷🐘🇫🇷🐘🇫🇷🐘🇫🇷🐘🇫🇷🐘🇫🇷🐘🇫🇷🐘🇫🇷🐘

review
Deborah42
Histoire de Babar le petit lphant | Jean de Brunhoff, Laurent Brunhoff
post image
Pickpick

Enfin un livre que je peux lire en français. J'ai lu ceci en anglais il y a plusieurs années. Babar est aussi gentil que je me souviens.

Jari-chan I used to love those when I was a kid 😍 5y
Eggs J‘adore Babar 💗💗 5y
6 likes2 comments
blurb
Eggs
post image

Oh how my children loved reading Babar!! #animalbooks #31bookclips @howjessreads

quote
Cheshirecat913
post image

So, we got this book 2nd hand the other day and I read it to my daughter last night. I must not have read this one before because I remember cuddly and righteous King Babar, not everyone dying. 😯 Origin stories can be weird.
#boardbookbonanza
@ErinSueG @WhiskeyMistress

Erinsuereads What what what!!! 6y
12 likes1 comment
blurb
Miss.Savannah
post image

I used to love this book and the TV show; but I heard it is very outdated and offensive for promoting colonialism and racial stereotypes 😧

blurb
LisaJo
post image

1. All the wise advice my mom gave me in my youth that ignored.
2. Zoe.
3. About 300 - this does not include the floor, the closet, and under the bed. That is about 200 more.
4. Babar

#booksandshelfies @Amabear

Amabear Hahaha! That‘s great! 6y
24 likes1 comment
review
GatheringBooks
post image
Pickpick

#FallIntoBooks Day 9: These colourful #Bookmarks are given to me by a good friend and fellow bibliophile/book blogger.

blurb
PurpleyPumpkin
post image

Children's books often involve #anthropomorphiccharacters. So, for this #feistyfeb prompt, I thought I'd take a look at my collection of books to see if I had something appropriate. And I found Babar! I loved this book so much when I was a kid. But I had completely forgotten about it! 💛🐘#day6

cathysaid LOVED Babar 🐘❤️ 8y
CherylDeFranceschi ❤️❤️❤️ 8y
BarbaraTheBibliophage Great choice - he and Celeste are awesome! 8y
72 likes3 comments
blurb
Leigh0906
post image

Day 6 of #feistyfeb- I loved all of the Barbar books when I was little. By far the coolest elephant of all. #anthropomorphiccharacters #Barbar