Babar's Travels

Royal pachyderm newlyweds Babar and Celeste set out on their honeymoon voyage in this sequel to Jean de Brunhoff's The Story of Babar, finding that their balloon ride ends in disaster when a storm sends them crash-landing on an island inhabited by "fierce and savage cannibals." Escaping with the help of an obliging whale, the couple endure many more hardships, from being stranded together on a reef to being forced to perform in a circus, before being reunited with the Old Lady who aided Babar in his first adventure, and being returned to their own land. Here, however, they discover that their travails are far from over, as a war with the rhinoceros nation has developed in their absence...

As mentioned in my review of the first volume, the Babar books have garnered quite a bit of critical attention over the last few decades, with accusations of colonialist apologia/celebration coming from some (see the collection of essays, Should We Burn Babar?: Essays on Children's Literature and the Power of Stories), and counter-claims of self-conscious colonialist parody coming from others (see the essay, Freeing the Elephants: What Babar Brought, published in The New Yorker magazine). It wasn't clear to me, reading The Story of Babar, which interpretation was the correct one, and I'm afraid it still isn't. Unfortunately, even without the issue of the colonialist narrative (whatever one makes of it), I found The Travels of Babar painfully offensive. The overtly racist visual depiction of the "savage cannibals" that Babar and Celeste encounter on the tropical island where they land - black skin, exaggerated red lips - was painful to see, and while I accept that it was a product of its time, I cannot see it as anything but a relic of a very ugly past. I think that it cannot be an accident that Gopnick, who penned the defense above, chose to base his argument primarily on the first and third Babar titles (The Story of Babar and Babar the King), and neglected to mention this one. It certainly does not lend itself to the notion that there is no harm in de Brunhoff's work... ( )

Ah! A journey to far off lands. I just loved these stories. ( )

Babar and his wife Celeste share a most unusual honeymoon adventure in this 1934 French to English translation. Readers will be reminded of the early publication date through the blackface representations of the savages the new couple come across upon the crash landing of their hot air balloon. The story progresses as the couple faces new obstacles, including being forced to perform in a circus and returning home to find their elephant nation at war. An endearing old lady emerges in the middle of the story who is both a friend and savior to the young couple in more ways than one. The cultural markers in this book point out the need for librarians to ensure they have a diversified collection to balance out the stereotypical representations mentioned earlier. ( )

Hey, no honeymoon is complete without adventure. ( )