A review by calistareads
Babar the King by Jean de Brunhoff

3.0

I thought this was good, but it was a little long and rambling. It doesn’t do anything until the end of the story. Babar is simply building his city of Celesteville for most of the book. We see the planning and the people dressing up and I don’t really think it’s all that interesting or exciting. I guess back in the 30’s having a nice city was important and interesting. The Old Lady sure does like the company of elephants. The end there is some conflict with a fire and a snake causing some issues, but it’s only a few of the 50 pages that happens. It’s a rather slow story.

This story glorifies the city and people moving away from nature. It’s a classic and I think I read most of these as a child. Our library has 1 copy of this story left and another one I know they just got rid of. These aren’t being read as much and libraries are getting rid of them. I don’t think it’s the best children’s book out there, but I don’t like seeing our past being forgotten. I wish these old stories still had their place. Anyway. I suppose this served its purpose and like everything else, it has a beginning and an end.

The nephew thought this was a fun story. He liked all the elephants, but it’s longish and that gets old after awhile. He began to get distracted as the story went on and I lost his attention. He gave this 3 stars and he wants to see an elephant city.