Babar has forgotten how hard it is to be a child, so he attends grade school for a day with Pom, Flora, Isabelle, and Alexander.

All too often, attention is paid only to those children's novels that were written in English, with non-English-language works being passed over and neglected. Beyond Babar: The European Tradition in Children's Literature examines eleven of the most celebrated European children's novels in substantial, critical essays written by well-known international scholars. This approach provides a comprehensive discussion of the selected works from a variety of theoretical perspectives. Each essay offers a critical introduction to the text that can serve as a point of departure for literary scholars, professors of children's literature, primary and secondary school teachers, and librarians who are interested in texts that cross languages and cultures. Beyond Babar is especially meant to assist instructors of children's literature who would like to use these texts in the classroom, in order to begin to redress the English-language dominance of many children's literature courses. This volume will also be of interest to the general public, as its ultimate aim is to bring to the attention of all English-speaking readers the literature from other parts of the world, in this case from Europe. Beyond Babar helps to facilitate the border crossings of these European masterpieces of children's literature into the English-speaking world.

The artist of this illustrated typescript is unknown; it is not in the hand of either of the authors of the Babar series, Jean or Laurent de Brunhoff. It is believed to have been prepared for a BBC production of Jean de Brunhoff's book "Babar en famille" (translated as "Babar at Home" in England and "Babar and His Children" in the United States). It has been suggested that this illustrated typescript was prepared for a production for the BBC children's series "Blue Peter," but the BBC archives does not have a record of a production of "Babar at Home" on that television show. The story was read by Maurice Roeves on the BBC series "Jackanory" on May 28, 1975, but this show did not have a format that would have accomodated an illustrated story such as this one.

After Babar and Celeste watch him on television, Truffles, the most famous chef in Celesteville, comes to the palace to give cooking lessons.

King of the Elephants Babar and his wife Celeste welcome new baby Isabelle.

Babar explains how yoga was introduced to Celesteville and how he and Queen Celeste keep fit doing yoga on their many travels. Full color. Consumable.

Discusses the meaning conveyed to children from books like "Babar, the Elephant," and "Pinocchio," and takes a look at the history of public education