In the story of "Babar at Home", Babar the elephant experiences one of the most exciting
moments of his life. Queen Celeste tells him that she's going to have a baby, and Babar anxiously
awaits the event to receive a great surprise! It turns out that Celeste has had not one baby,
but three! There are great feelings of excitement and anticipation to see the babies within the
elephant kingdom, and they bring great joy to Babar and his family. However, then a series of
unexpected events occur to the triplets, some of which endanger their lives and which they
narrowly escape! Babar and Celeste approach the situation in a similar way to which they
approached the unfortunate events in "Babar The King" - they decide to accept what has happened
and learn from their unfortunate experiences.
The story begins when, one morning, Babar tells Cornelius of Celeste's pregnancy. He instructs him to
accept a hat as a present from him and a scroll which contains a message about the baby that he
is to announce to the citizens of Celesteville. After congratulating and thanking Babar,
Cornelius rushes off to put on his robes of state. He then orders the drums to be beaten in front
of the railings of the Royal Palace, and then announces King Babar's proclaimation to the
citizens of Celesteville. Included within the message was that when the birth occurred, a
cannon would be fired. Meanwhile, Babar can't deter himself from thinking of the awaited event!
No matter how hard he tries (reading, writing etc) he can't stop thinking about Celeste and his
future children. He decides to take a bicycle ride as a means of changing
his thoughts. Just as he reaches a pleasant spot , he hears three cannon shots fired into the air!
He rushes home to find his wife Celeste has given birth to THREE baby elephants, and now can
understand why three cannon shots were fired! He is overwhelmed in feelings of joy.
His friends Arthur (his cousin), Zephir the monkey and the old lady are also very excited.
From that day onwards, the babies are given much attention and Babar and Celeste are given
presents by delighted friends. Babar and Celeste decide to name them "Pom, Flora and Alexander"
(Pom and Alexander being the boys and Flora being the girl).
Then, one day, when Flora is playing with a rattle in her pram, she accidentily swallows it!
Celeste rushes to the scene, places Flora upside down and shakes her in a bid to make her cough
up the rattle. She doesn't succeed. Then Zephir, who is also nearby, tries to get it out with his
hand and succeeds! Celeste is overjoyed and Flora (traumatised by the event) is comforted by her
mother. The next unfortunate event happens to poor Alexander! One day, when taking out the
babies in their pram, the nurse leaves them in the care of Arthur. She explains she has to
"...run and fetch the babies' jerseys so that they won't catch cold." Arthur feels very proud
to have the babies in his care, but in a split second, when he is not watching, he accidentily
lets go of the handle and the pram rolls away by itself! He, and the nurse (who has just arrived
back) run after the pram and try to catch it, but to no avail! It runs down a very steep slope,
and is just saved from going over the edge of a deep ravine by a little turtle, who throws itself
in front of the pram! The pram then stops with a halt, and Flora and Pom are thrust to one side,
while Alexander is thrown out over the edge of the ravine! Arthur and the nurse despair, but
little do they know that Alexander has very luckily fallen into a tree. He is coaxed down by
the occupants of the tree - some squirrels- who help him to climb to a safer branch than the
one he is sitting in. Then, by pure luck, a giraffe passes by and helps Alexander get down by
letting Alexander climb onto his head. Babar and Celeste, who at that moment are rushing over
to the place where Alexander had fallen , are overjoyed that he is safe.
The next unfortunate event happens to Alexander again, when Babar and his family decide to go on a picnic by a river. While Cornelius (an old family member of the group) is sleeping, Alexander takes his Bowler Hat and places it in the river, hops into the hat and proceeds to sail away! As the current draws him further out into the river, Alexander is delighted with his journey. Flora and Pom, who are standing on the river bank, watching, begin to feel uneasy, and Flora runs to find her mother. Pom, who is still standing on the river bank, shouts that he sees a crocodile! He begins to get very worried. If it wasn't for Babar, who was sailing in the river that very moment, and spotted the old crocodile, Alexander would have been in grave trouble. Babar seizes the anchor of his boat, and throws it into the jaws of the monster. The crocodile, unable to bite anything with the anchor firmly positioned in its mouth, angrily lashes out with his tail before sinking into the water. The force of the lash disturbs the balance of the hat in the water, and Alexander falls out into the water! Babar dives into the river and saves Alexander just in time. The whole family is overjoyed at his safety. They return quickly home and get Alexander changed into some warm, dry clothes. At the end of the story, Babar tells Celeste how it is not easy to bring up children, but remarks that all the same, he wouldn't know what to do without them. "Babar at home" is truley a delightful story, with many exciting moments throughout. It is a story of learning and growing up, and of how love and family support can aid you in this process. It is also a story of how, when things go wrong, one should not despair, but look at the positive aspects of the situation and learn from your mistakes and misfortunes.
