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Babar and Zephir
Jean de Brunhoff
The fifth of Jean de Brunhoff's original Babar books, first published in France in 1936 as Les vacances de Zéphir. For once the elephant king steps aside: the hero here is Zephir, Babar's young monkey friend, who goes home to Monkeyville on holiday and then sets off to rescue a captive princess from a monster-haunted island, aided by a mermaid. De Brunhoff's watercolors are as clear and companionable as ever — big skies, hand-lettered text, a storybook world drawn with real tenderness. He would die of tuberculosis the following year at thirty-seven, having built one of the most beloved characters in children's publishing out of a bedtime story his wife invented. Bright, gently surreal, and made for reading aloud.
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The author
Jean de Brunhoff (1899–1937) was a French painter who turned a bedtime story — invented by his wife Cécile to comfort a sick son — into the Babar books. Between 1931 and his early death from tuberculosis he produced seven, establishing the large-format, hand-lettered picture book as an art form. His son Laurent later continued the series.
The book
Les vacances de Zéphir (1936) is unusual in the canon for sidelining Babar himself. Zephir the monkey returns to Monkeyville, then undertakes a fairy-tale quest — a captured princess, a helpful mermaid, an island of monsters — rendered in de Brunhoff's serene watercolors and looping script.
How it has aged
The draftsmanship and gentle wit remain irresistible, and the adventure structure gives it more momentum than some entries. Like all early Babar, it carries the colonial assumptions of interwar France, which modern readers tend to notice even as they enjoy the artistry.
For more context
Read alongside The Story of Babar and Babar the King to see de Brunhoff's world at full stretch before Laurent took over.
Sources
- Type
- Book
- Author / Maker
- Jean de Brunhoff
- ISBN
- None
- Shelf
- Fiction
- Location
- Colorado