Meet Babar and His Family

This is the original, wonderful Babar. It was my favorite as a child (I still have the 1973 original edition) and I am happy to be able to share this gentle story and its beautiful illustrations with my own child today. There is nothing to be afraid of in this book, including the minor boo-boo, which is bloodless and something any child can relate to. The point of this book is not to teach about the seasons, but to enjoy seeing the fun things that the elephants in the charming kingdom of Celesteville do all year. From picking apples to skiing, the family has fun together. Santa doesn't appear in this book, even though one reviewer said otherwise, and I can't imagine why another reviewer said it's really the same as Barney. Nonsense. That is like seeing no difference between a smiley face sticker and a pretty, though simple, painting. Additionally, Babar is an important French character, and if you want to introduce your child to French culture, this is a good start. This story gives several glimpses of traditions still very much alive in Europe, like buying a cake before coming to tea at a friend's house, and listening to an outdoor orchestra on the plaza in the summertime. An A+ book about the comforts of family, and the joys of life throughout the year.

In this book, Babar, the King of Elephants, takes us on a tour of the four seasons. He tells us about different things that his family does during each of the seasons. The book ends with Santa Claus at Christmas time. Generally, the story is quite innocuous, with little that might scare young ones, except for a very bloody skinned knee. But we're reassured that the doctor says it's not serious. All told, the book has about 750 words.

Researchers constantly find that reading to children is valuable in a variety of ways, not least of which are instilling a love of reading and improved reading skills. With better parent-child bonding from reading, your child will also be more emotionally secure and able to relate better to others. Intellectual performance will expand as well. Spending time together watching television fails as a substitute. To help other parents apply this advice, as a parent of four I consulted an expert, our youngest child, and asked her to share with me her favorite books that were read to her as a young child. Meet Babar and His Family was one of her picks.The Babar books belong in every home with children. If you already know the series, I'm certain that you agree. If you don't know Babar and his family, you should. They represent idealized "family values" as elephants together. Their relationships with others are ideal as well, including their elephant friends, other animal friends, and the Old Lady (a human) who teaches school in Celestville, where they all live. I also like introducing children to a world where animals may have more authority than people do. That can help establish all kinds of interesting new thoughts about our relationship to the natural world. Meet Babar and His Family has a good balance of illustrations, actions, and story development to keep your youngster's mind occupied while you read to him or her during the preschool years. Later, your child will be reading this and other Babar stories to you. Memorizing what you have read aloud and learning to follow along with the words will be part of that process of learning to read. As the title suggests, this story is built around introducing each of the characters, helping you understand their qualities and role in the series, and showing the kinds of activities they typically do. The only aspect of the stories that is not fully developed is that Babar and his wife, Celeste, are king and queen of the elephants and rule over Celesteville. But they are wearing their crowns and are identified as king and queen, so you can expand on this theme of the later stories easily enough. Most of the other stories in the series do not include all of these characters, so finding them all here will make it easier for your child to understand the other stories when you move on to them.The Babar family's children are Pom, Flora, and Alexander. As is usual, they get a little too active, and one of them gets hurt (Pom, in this case) and is treated by Doctor Capoulosse. Naturally, Babar's young cousin Arthur is in the story, playing with his friend Zephir, the monkey. Cornelius, the oldest of the elephants, has tea with the Old Lady. The story takes you through four seasons' worth of activities, including ones that the family does together (like go skating, picnicing, and listening to a concert) as well as children's activities (like a snowball fight, going to school, and taking the school