#000219
Babar's Picnic
Laurent de Brunhoff
Laurent de Brunhoff's Babar's Picnic, first published as Pique-nique chez Babar in 1949, is an early entry in the son's long stewardship of his father's elephant. The plot is deliberately slight — Babar, Celeste, and the children hunt for the perfect spot to spread their lunch, gathering Cornelius, Zephir, and Cousin Arthur along the way — but that gentleness is the point in a book pitched at the youngest readers. Laurent had taught himself to paint in Jean's style so seamlessly that the series barely faltered after his father's death. It's worth knowing that the book was withdrawn by its American publisher over racial caricatures and not reissued until 1991; the picnic charm and the dated stereotype live in the same volume, and honest readers hold both.
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The author
Laurent de Brunhoff (1925–2024) inherited Babar at twelve when his father Jean died, and from 1946 spent seven decades extending the series, ultimately adding more than forty titles. He trained himself to match Jean's watercolor style so closely that many readers never register the handover.
The book
Babar's Picnic (Random House, 1949; originally Pique-nique chez Babar) is a low-stakes outing story for the youngest audience: the elephant family searches for a picnic site and collects familiar companions on the way. The appeal is atmosphere — sunshine, appetite, the pleasure of a plan coming together.
How it has aged
Random House pulled the book over caricatures of Black figures and kept it out of print until 1991. That history matters: the volume is both a warm early-reader and a document of the casual racism of its moment, and it is best read with that acknowledged rather than smoothed over.
For more context
Compare with Jean's originals to watch the style pass between generations, and with later Laurent titles as his own voice emerged.
Sources
- Type
- Book
- Author / Maker
- Laurent de Brunhoff
- ISBN
- None
- Shelf
- Fiction
- Location
- Colorado