"Babar The Gardener" is mainly a story for younger children. It's typed in large print, with bold and colourful pictures displayed on every page. The story focuses on how one day when Babar and his family are working in their lovely garden, nothing seems to go according to plan and Babar's children have many accidents. This basicly spoils their afternoon. However, at the end of the day, they bake a delicious cherry pie and realise that it hadn't been such a bad day after all. The story includes the characters of Babar, Celeste, Pom, Flora and Alexander. Laurent De Brunhoff begins the story by telling the reader that "Babar has a beautiful garden, and works in it a great deal". He then explains how Babar lets his children have gardens of their very own and how each child has taken a lot of trouble with his/her garden. "They have each put up a fence and a signboard, dug the soil and grown the flowers and vegetables". After introducing us to Babar and his children, De Brunhoff informs us that Pom (Babar's son) grows radishes, Alexander (Babar's other son) grows strawberries and gooseberries and Flora (Babar's daughter) grows beautiful flowers. De Brunhoff then begins telling the main story. He tells of how one sunny day when the children are helping Babar to weed a path, Pom accidentily hits Flora with the spade he had been using to help clear the space. Flora then runs and tells her mother about the incident. Celeste (Flora's mother) notices that Flora's forehead has been cut and bandages it with some plaster for her.
Flora then goes back out into the garden to continue working. Babar and his children water Flora's roses as they need watering. However, the children are naughty and spray each other with water from their trunks. Babar scolds them and commands the children to "stop that at once!". Then just at that very moment, Flora notices how birds are eating all the cherries on their cherry tree. Babar remarks how the birds are greedy and says that their scarecrow doesn't frighten them. They all wonder what they should do. Babar comments that the cherries seem ripe and perhaps they should pick them on that day. They all decide to do just that, and Babar tells the children to go and find some baskets whilst he puts up the ladders. Everyone helps to pick the cherries, but then all of a sudden Pom
falls of his branch and crashes into the big basket of cherries, crushing them! Arthur asks Pom if he is all right, but Pom
replies he can't move. He finally manages to get out of the basket, sneezing. Flora comments that he has a cold. Altogether
it hadn't been a successful day for the trio (Pom having sprained his arm, Flora having got a bump on her forehead and
Alexander having caught a cold), but DeBrunhoff comments "...they would soon be well again - and in the mean time there
was cherry pie for supper!" Overall, "Babar The Gardener" is a delightful and entertaining story for younger children. It includes charming, colourful pictures and a simple story line. It may be especially enjoyed by those children who have a love of nature and gain pleasure from spending time in gardens.
