Babar and His Children

Royal pachyderms Babar and Celeste become parents to triplets in this sixth original Babar picture-book from Jean de Brunhoff, originally published in 1938 as Babar en famille. As Babar paces and frets, finally going on a bicycle ride, the queen delivers not one, not two, but three little elephants, much to the joy of Babar, and all the other residents of Celesteville. Naming their offspring Alexander, Pom and Flora, the proud parents embark on an adventure of a different kind, finding that keeping their little ones safe - from rattles, cliffs and alligators - is a full-time job. Still, as Babar observes at the end, "how nice the babies are! I wouldn't know how to get along without them any more..."

I found this entry in the series quite amusing, although I suspect that this was not the intent of its creator. Some of the parenting issues felt rather outdated to me (not surprising given the publication date), but then, I also found some of the adventures rather sweet. The artwork is charming, as usual - I find de Brunhoff's stylized elephants quite appealing, visually speaking - and there is nothing to offend, as there was in The Travels of Babar. I'm still not a great Babar fan, but Babar and His Children, along with its direct predecessor, Babar and Zephir, seems like one of the better offerings, when it comes to this character. ( )

Babar and Celeste are blessed with triplets! This book tells of their birth, naming and the adventures of parenthood. Very Cute! Beautiful illustrations. ( )

Another great story in the series. ( )

Babar, king of the elephants, hears that his wife Celeste is expecting a baby, they are surprised by triplets and follow the trials and joys of young children. De Brunhoff's paintings beautiful with their bold and simple color schemes. He also uses a wide variety of text and picture relationship, some double page spreads, some panels, and some interaction of pictures and text on white space. The story is simple and made up of multiple small anecdotes that follow the general theme of the over aching story. A time tested classic, this book is good for any collection, can be read to all ages and can be read by readers at 1st or 2nd grade levels. ( )

Babar and his queen Celeste are having a baby, turns out to be three. Pom, Flora and Alexander are growing. Flora swallows a rattle, luckily Zephir gets the rattle out to save her. Arthur, the big brother, lets go of the carriage and Alexander almost flies into a deep ravine, luckily the squirrels and the giraffe saves him. Then Alexander almost floats into a crocodile, luckily Babar saves him. The babies snug in bed and Babar and Celeste have time to think how lucky they are that everyone is fine.

Cute story but there is several times that it gets confusing. They used a different word to describe the baby carriage, they made a reference to a rabbit we knew nothing about, the squirrels seemed to enjoy ticking little Alexander and the ducks would only help retrieve the crown and hat, not the baby elephant out of the middle of the lake. Overall a cute story but the flow of the storyline was broken by some of these petty things. ( )