I recently grabbed several Babar books at the library for my 3 year old, having not read them since I was a child and still having very fond memories of them. I was shocked when I started reading and actually didn’t even finish the first book we’d set out to read together. I told my toddler they were too long and we would try again when she’s older. Holy WOW do they hit differently as an adult! I’m not sure if I’ll ever revisit them. With such an infinite number of excellent kids books available to us, I just don’t know if I’ll ever want to spend time on these.
This is one of those moments where you see how much innocence (and not having a full understanding of the world) protects you as a kid. You're right... there are plenty of incredible new titles and lots of wonderful old classics as well that are lovely reads.
I'll have to use these as example texts with my students when we study colonialism. Right now I read them ABC for Baby Patriots ("C is for colonies, rightly we boast that of all the great nations, Great Britain has the most")
It’s taken me a while to respond to this comment just because my gut reaction was very inappropriate 😆. Wow. Just wow. In all the negative ways. You are doing such hard, necessary work trying to untangle this complicated history. Thank you.
So much untangling! I worry all the time about the right way to teach it. Lately, I've shifted away from "how Europeans colonized" to "how Africans/Asians resisted," and I didn't even use the book the year. I think there is a fine line between exposing my high school students to stereotypes and perpetuating them. Tricky stuff.
I’ve never read Babar but your synopsis was good. The child me would’ve felt sad about his mother, would’ve been angry with the hunter.
The adult me didn’t like him living in the city, doing city things, but I do like that his knowledge about man would help save the elephants.
I’m not sure about telling a little child about colonialism…I believe a child needs as much innocence as possible. Later, as the child grows, I’d talk about it.
It's so interesting how at different ages we'd focus on different things! That was my experience as well--focusing on the death of his mother rather than the grander scheme at play. I completely understand what you're saying about preserving a child's innocence. I hope my talking points are broad enough that adults and kids can take it in very broad directions.
Great review and update - I do have fond memories of Babar as a child…and didn’t remember or realize these themes - I’m not surprised unfortunately - all of these “classic” works can be problematic today, and you are so right to point them out. I felt this same way about Curious George which I did read with my son and felt a great need to explain some history…
I think as young kids we don't always see the subtext of what we read; it's so easy to not understand what's truly happening! I was planning on doing Curious George next but I might need a break from problematic animal characters 😅
It makes me wonder, though, what my mom was thinking! She had to have felt uncomfortable about these books she was sharing with us (and some of them, I suppose were probably nostalgic reads from HER childhood, so I wish I could ask my grandparents, too!)
Babar sits high on a closet shelf at our house because my nostalgic self who read them in my grandmothers attic as a child can’t part with them, but my current self cannot stomach reading them to my small children because of the very pro-colonialism themes. Did you dabble into the the honeymoon book? Because the depictions of the islanders are straight offensive both in illustration and word. Again, a product of its time, and terribly hard to read now.
I love the way you provide the history, the facts, and approach your review with non-biased but honest knowledge. Thank you for feeling the rage but also giving us guidance for how to work through it.
Also, Attenborough should narrate everything. He’s my celebrity pass (IYKYK) because I want him to sit bedside and chat me to sleep every night.
I started reading the honeymoon and the second I got to *those* pages, I shut the book. I saw all I needed to see, unfortunately. Thanks for always supporting this project! I'm always nervous about totally defaming a beloved childhood book.
And, yes, now that you mention it, is there a more soothing way to sleep than to have his melodious voice lull you to sleep? You are very smart at making him your celebrity pass 😂
This was an excellent analysis and covered all the things that have made me inherently uncomfortable with Babar, even as a kid, though I definitely could not have articulated it. You did that wonderfully here.
Thank you for this post, Sri. Babar was gifted to us and I only had a fuzzy recollection of the story, the first time we read it I was surprised about how much I did not remember about the story....and how complicated it was.
I recently grabbed several Babar books at the library for my 3 year old, having not read them since I was a child and still having very fond memories of them. I was shocked when I started reading and actually didn’t even finish the first book we’d set out to read together. I told my toddler they were too long and we would try again when she’s older. Holy WOW do they hit differently as an adult! I’m not sure if I’ll ever revisit them. With such an infinite number of excellent kids books available to us, I just don’t know if I’ll ever want to spend time on these.
This is one of those moments where you see how much innocence (and not having a full understanding of the world) protects you as a kid. You're right... there are plenty of incredible new titles and lots of wonderful old classics as well that are lovely reads.
I'll have to use these as example texts with my students when we study colonialism. Right now I read them ABC for Baby Patriots ("C is for colonies, rightly we boast that of all the great nations, Great Britain has the most")
It’s taken me a while to respond to this comment just because my gut reaction was very inappropriate 😆. Wow. Just wow. In all the negative ways. You are doing such hard, necessary work trying to untangle this complicated history. Thank you.
So much untangling! I worry all the time about the right way to teach it. Lately, I've shifted away from "how Europeans colonized" to "how Africans/Asians resisted," and I didn't even use the book the year. I think there is a fine line between exposing my high school students to stereotypes and perpetuating them. Tricky stuff.
I’ve never read Babar but your synopsis was good. The child me would’ve felt sad about his mother, would’ve been angry with the hunter.
The adult me didn’t like him living in the city, doing city things, but I do like that his knowledge about man would help save the elephants.
I’m not sure about telling a little child about colonialism…I believe a child needs as much innocence as possible. Later, as the child grows, I’d talk about it.
It's so interesting how at different ages we'd focus on different things! That was my experience as well--focusing on the death of his mother rather than the grander scheme at play. I completely understand what you're saying about preserving a child's innocence. I hope my talking points are broad enough that adults and kids can take it in very broad directions.
Great review and update - I do have fond memories of Babar as a child…and didn’t remember or realize these themes - I’m not surprised unfortunately - all of these “classic” works can be problematic today, and you are so right to point them out. I felt this same way about Curious George which I did read with my son and felt a great need to explain some history…
I think as young kids we don't always see the subtext of what we read; it's so easy to not understand what's truly happening! I was planning on doing Curious George next but I might need a break from problematic animal characters 😅
It makes me wonder, though, what my mom was thinking! She had to have felt uncomfortable about these books she was sharing with us (and some of them, I suppose were probably nostalgic reads from HER childhood, so I wish I could ask my grandparents, too!)
Babar sits high on a closet shelf at our house because my nostalgic self who read them in my grandmothers attic as a child can’t part with them, but my current self cannot stomach reading them to my small children because of the very pro-colonialism themes. Did you dabble into the the honeymoon book? Because the depictions of the islanders are straight offensive both in illustration and word. Again, a product of its time, and terribly hard to read now.
I love the way you provide the history, the facts, and approach your review with non-biased but honest knowledge. Thank you for feeling the rage but also giving us guidance for how to work through it.
Also, Attenborough should narrate everything. He’s my celebrity pass (IYKYK) because I want him to sit bedside and chat me to sleep every night.
I started reading the honeymoon and the second I got to *those* pages, I shut the book. I saw all I needed to see, unfortunately. Thanks for always supporting this project! I'm always nervous about totally defaming a beloved childhood book.
And, yes, now that you mention it, is there a more soothing way to sleep than to have his melodious voice lull you to sleep? You are very smart at making him your celebrity pass 😂
This was an excellent analysis and covered all the things that have made me inherently uncomfortable with Babar, even as a kid, though I definitely could not have articulated it. You did that wonderfully here.
Thank you! I tried my best to articulate rage in a reasonable manner 😂
Thank you for this post, Sri. Babar was gifted to us and I only had a fuzzy recollection of the story, the first time we read it I was surprised about how much I did not remember about the story....and how complicated it was.
Oof, so complicated! It's definitely an eye-opener as an adult.