Babar: The Race to the Moon

Babar

by Jean de Brunhoff, Laurent de Brunhoff

Babar and the elephants get involved in a race to the moon instead of rebuilding the Celesteville theatre

Genres: Childrens

44 pages, Hardcover

First published December 16, 1990

About the author

Jean de Brunhoff was a French writer and illustrator known for co-creating Babar, which first appeared in 1931. The stories were originally told to their second son, Mathieu, when he was sick, by his wife Cecile de Brunhoff. After its first appearance, six more titles followed. He was the fourth and last child of Maurice de Brunhoff, a successful publisher, and his wife Marguerite. He attended Protestant schools, including the prestigious L'Ecole Alsacienne. Brunhoff joined the army and reached the front lines when World War I was almost over. Afterwards, he decided to be a professional artist and studied painting at Academie de la Grand Chamiere. He married Ceccile Sabourand, a talented pianist from a Catholic family, in 1924.
Brunhoff died of tuberculosis at the age of 37. After his death, Hachette bought the printing and publishing rights to the Babar series, and ten years later Jean's eldst son, Laurent, took on his late father's role of writing and illustrating the series. The first seven Babar albums were reprinted and millions of copies were sold all around the world, but they were all abridged; they had 30 pages instead of the original 48. The Babar books are thought to be a way for Brunhoff to share himself with his family. Many people did not notice the 10 year gap, as Laurent also showed exceptional talent in drawing elephants. De Brunhoff and his wife are buried in the Père Lachaise cemetery in Paris.

Reviews

[Robyn · Rating 2 out of 5]

Read in Portuguese: "Viagem à Lua" // I have also read "A Festa Continua" (3 stars), which is not yet in Goodreads.

[Maria Morrison · Rating 2 out of 5]

Generally I like Babar, but this one irked me. In it Arthur wants to create a space program, but when the Rhino King discovers this he starts a space race which ends badly. The whole while Babar is telling them to keep their heads on earthly affairs and that it is foolish to want to go to the moon and ultimately the kingdom agrees and goes back to business as usual. I thought that the crushing of the dream simply for one failure was demeaning to the need to explore and understand things. For shame.