Babar the elephant left the jungle and entered Western civilization in 1931 in a book published in Paris. Since then he has fought enemies and aided friends, sailed to exotic islands, flown to distant planets, toured America, solved mysteries, and encountered the supernatural in a series of adventures chronicled in thirty-seven volumes to date.

His story has been translated into seventeen languages, recorded on tape, animated, and set to music.

Babar is both King and Everyman. A kind and sensible leader, he is also a playful and adventurous child. He experiences the diverse realities of modern living; the pleasure of blue-water ports and bustling cities, the anguish of separation and of encounters with evil.

Both wondrous and familiar, his sagas and the pictures that illustrate them have universal appeal. He has become part of the mythology of the twentieth century.