The Story of Babar: The classic tale of an adventurous elephant that has enchanted generations of readers!

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Everything turns on the individual child and her ability to create a safe miniworld of her own within the big chaotic city.

The happy effect that Babar has on us, and our imaginations, comes from this knowledge—from the child’s strong sense that, while it is a very good thing to be an elephant, still, the life of an elephant is dangerous, wild, and painful. Jean de Brunhoff’s exquisite stories have charmed readers around the world for 80 years, and fans can now cherish a collection of his tales in this beautiful gift book. Let’s work hard and cheerfully and we’ll continue to be happy,” the Old Lady tells the elephants, and, though we know that the hunter is still in the woods, it is hard to know what more to add. Audubon’s sons’ continuation of their father’s “Quadrupeds” is another instance, but in that case the father was alive when the sons began to carry on the work.The case cannot be dismissed out of hand: it’s easy to see that, say, “Little Black Sambo,” for all his pancake-eating charms, needs to be thought through before being introduced to young readers, while, to take an extreme example, a book from nineteen-thirties Germany about the extermination of long-nosed rats by obviously Aryan cats would go on anyone’s excluded list, however beautifully drawn.

After the victory celebrations, the book ends with Babar, Celeste and the Old Lady sitting together and discussing how Babar can rule wisely and make all the elephants happy.All of this could maybe be overlooked if The Story of Babar had a positive message, but the only take-away seems to be that elephants (read Africans) are uncivilized and would do better with city-life (read European Colonialism). Babar, following his mother's murder at the hands of white hunters, blithely follows their path back to the white city. Between 1931 and 1937 he completed a body of work that forever changed the face of the illustrated book. The costs of those things are real, too, in the perpetual care, the sobriety of effort, they demand. Laurent de Brunhoff’s Babar books include Babar et ce coquin d’Arthur (1946; Babar and That Rascal Arthur) and Babar’s Celesteville Games (2011).

It is accepted by you that Daunt Books has no control over additional charges in relation to customs clearance.I never thought a children's book about an elephant would leave me with more questions than answers, but it's 2021.