Bonjour, Babar!: The Six Unabridged Classics by the Creator of Babar
Seven decades after Babar was born, the world is still very much in love  with the noble elephant. Before his untimely death at age 37, Jean de Brunhoff  wrote and illustrated six stories about Babar and his friends and family. In  this exquisite gift edition, every one of these stories is included, with not a  word or picture left out. FromThe Story of Babar--in which the elephant  is born, loses his mother, runs off to Paris, and returns to be crowned  king--throughThe Travels of Babar,Babar the King,Babar and  Zephir,Babar and His Children, andBabar and Father  Christmas, the beloved pachyderm's incredible life adventures are chronicled  for our reading pleasure. In his introduction, picture book author-illustrator  Kevin Henkes writes, "Where else could one find a balloon accident, a deadly  poison mushroom, a runaway carriage, an extraordinary flying machine, a snake  attack, fire, war, death, birth? These books are full of adventure and fantasy,  but they also deal with the stuff of real life. And I'm convinced children long  to see both the dark and the light sides of human experience reflected in their  books just as much as adults do, perhaps more." Adults who truly wish to share  the joys of the classics with the children in their lives could do no better  than to present them with this grand collection. (Ages 4 and older)--Emilie  Coulter