Six favourite stories about Babar the elephant are presented in this volume to celebrate his fiftieth anniversary. Translated from de Brunhoff's original French, the adventures of the world's most popular elephant and his friends have enchanted multiple generations. The story of Babar: After his mother is killed by a hunter, Babar avoids capture by escaping to the city, where he is befriended by the kindly Old Lady. He becomes educated and cultured and, upon his return to the great forest, is crowned King of the Elephants. The travels of Babar: Babar and Celeste set off in a balloon, beginning an exciting series of adventures. Meanwhile, Babar knows nothing of his home country's escalating war against the rhinos. But with some help from the Old Lady, Babar returns in time to save the day. Babar the king: The elephants work together to build Celesteville, a magnificent city. Everyone has a job to do, celebrations are frequent, and life is peaceful and contented for the elephants. But one fateful day a snake bites the Old Lady and Babar fears that he may lose his oldest friend. Babar's birthday surprise: Queen Celeste has a big surprise planned for Babar's birthday-- a sculptor will carve a giant statue of Babar into a mountainside. But Babar usually rides past the spot where the work is going on. How can the elephants keep their king's birthday surprise a secret? Babar's mystery: While vacationing at Celesteville-on-the-Sea, the Babar family matches wits with a bold gang of thieves. Babar and the wully-wully: Pom, Flora, and Alexander discover a rare wully-wully and bring him home to Celesteville. The lovable creature has a wonderful time playing with the little elephants and their friends, but then Rataxes the rhinoceros decides he wants the wully-wully for himself.