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A review by matthewb
Histoire de Babar le petit elephant by Jean de Brunhoff
4.0
I read this as part of my gentle introduction to French language literature, and I was expecting something simple and childish, like [b:Madeleine|475336|Madeleine|Ludwig Bemelmans|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1347576958l/475336._SX50_.jpg|2666907]. I was totally not expecting how hilariously ridiculous the story is.
It starts off nice and peaceful with Babar the elephant in the forest, then BAM out of nowhere his mother is killed by a hunter. A bit rough for a children's book, but whatever. Babar flees to a town where the stage is set for a story about a loose elephant and the town trying to capture him or send him back to the forest while he wreaks havoc. But no, instead the villagers bizarrely seem blind to his elephant-ness, leaving him free to make friends with an old lady and then go clothes shopping (the shop just happens to sell elephant clothes) and spend the afternoon going up and down the elevator. Grief is fleeting in this surreal world.
Fast forward through Babar anthropomorphizing while living with the old lady and driving a car she bought for him. Then we get to perhaps the craziest, most action packed day in any creature's life ever. While out for a walk with the old lady his cousins Arthur and Céleste come running up to him, naked! *Clears throat*... they are elephants... Anyway Babar promptly buys them clothes and then their mother finds them and drags them back to the forest (in Babar's car) where the elephant king has died so Babar is made king and he decides to marry his cousin Céleste and they have a big coronation and wedding party and fly away in a hot air balloon. Whew! What a day! That takes compressed Shakespearean timelines to the next level.
It's hard to critique a book that is so wacky, even if all the matriarchal characters (Babar's mother, the old lady and Céleste's mother) vanish inexplicably into the background. I think it does a good job tapping into the wildness of a child's imagination where there are no necessary boundaries and everything is possible. And the French was fairly accessible throughout. I enjoyed it, and I look forward to reading it with my son when he's older.
EDIT: I can't believe I completely missed the rather overt colonial overtones when I first read this, believing it to be an innocent childlike fantasy. It's the kind of thing that once you see it you can't unsee it, and it does make it harder to enjoy the book.
It starts off nice and peaceful with Babar the elephant in the forest, then BAM out of nowhere his mother is killed by a hunter. A bit rough for a children's book, but whatever. Babar flees to a town where the stage is set for a story about a loose elephant and the town trying to capture him or send him back to the forest while he wreaks havoc. But no, instead the villagers bizarrely seem blind to his elephant-ness, leaving him free to make friends with an old lady and then go clothes shopping (the shop just happens to sell elephant clothes) and spend the afternoon going up and down the elevator. Grief is fleeting in this surreal world.
Fast forward through Babar anthropomorphizing while living with the old lady and driving a car she bought for him. Then we get to perhaps the craziest, most action packed day in any creature's life ever. While out for a walk with the old lady his cousins Arthur and Céleste come running up to him, naked! *Clears throat*... they are elephants... Anyway Babar promptly buys them clothes and then their mother finds them and drags them back to the forest (in Babar's car) where the elephant king has died so Babar is made king and he decides to marry his cousin Céleste and they have a big coronation and wedding party and fly away in a hot air balloon. Whew! What a day! That takes compressed Shakespearean timelines to the next level.
It's hard to critique a book that is so wacky, even if all the matriarchal characters (Babar's mother, the old lady and Céleste's mother) vanish inexplicably into the background. I think it does a good job tapping into the wildness of a child's imagination where there are no necessary boundaries and everything is possible. And the French was fairly accessible throughout. I enjoyed it, and I look forward to reading it with my son when he's older.
EDIT: I can't believe I completely missed the rather overt colonial overtones when I first read this, believing it to be an innocent childlike fantasy. It's the kind of thing that once you see it you can't unsee it, and it does make it harder to enjoy the book.