barbapapa's ark Hardcover – January 1, 1974

Authors of books for children please take note, this book had a huge impact on my childhood. The story is about how Barbapapa and his family build a Noah's Ark to rescue all of the earth's animals from pollution created by humanity. They won't return until humans clean it up. Sadly we are at the cusp of the 6th largest extinction event in earth's history, but it isn't too late to protect our cohabitants, and ourselves. This book raised my concern about the health of this planet and started my life as an environmentalist. I could not find my original copy and bought this replacement when I went back to school to get an MS in Sustainability Management.

This book needs to make a come back....it's more relevant now than ever. It had an impact on how I thought about caring for our beautiful magic floating bubble garden (Earth!)

I loved the Barbapapa cartoons as a kid in the late 70's and early 80's and I am glad to introduce the Barba family to my child who loves them so much there is no day without the Barbas (we own both books and DVDs) ! The stories are funny and educational at the same time. Today's cartoons are rather dumb compared to these.

I grew up with this story and recently realized I needed to have it. Really brought back memories and the one I bought is in better shape than the one I remember reading over and over 30 years ago!

I still have my copy of this book that I received when I was 5 years old. As a young child, I enjoyed BARBAPAPA'S ARK for the depictions of the colorful Barba characters, who could physically change into the shape of anything they pleased (i.e., a frog, a plane, a bird, etc.) It was only after I started re-reading this book to my 3 year old son that I began to scrutinize both the overt environmental message of the book, and some of the "eyebrow raising" subtly of the artwork.In terms of the book's environmental message, it was way ahead of its time: With the depiction of solar powered communities, electric powered vehicles, high-tech water filtration systems, and the elimination of pollution-creating factories, BARBAPAPA'S ARK seems much more like a book that would have been written today rather than nearly 40 years ago.In tandem with its environmental message, BARBAPAPA'S ARK focuses primarily on the welfare and benevolent treatment of the world's animals. Specially, the book demonizes hunting and commercial fishing; we're given antiquated images of African safari style hunters (who in their evil "thought bubbles" are thinking about such things as mounted rhino heads, crocodile handbags, and zebra rugs), English "fox hunters" on horseback, and 19th century style whalers using hand held harpoons and hand held fishing nets - even by 1974 standards, these hunting examples seem anachronistic and comical.Although not said directly, there seems to be an implicit message of pro-vegetarianism associated with BABRAPAPA'S ARK in their promulgation of people "promis[ing] not to hunt animals anymore." While I can appreciate the book's message of respect for all sentient life, I am not a vegetarian. From my perspective, choosing to be a full meat eater, a piscivore, a vegetarian, or a vegan is a private and personal matter. While I am in agreement with the book in regard to both the abhorrent practice of poaching, and the general vulgarity of sport hunting, I bristle a little bit at their "broad-stroke" negative connotation associated with all hunting; I have family members and friends that annually hunt deer, and other wild game, for the meat. Sustainable hunting and fishing is not necessarily a negative thing - oftentimes it can be beneficial to the overall health and well-being of a regional game population, and cultures have done it since time immemorial. Despite this minor disagreement that I have with the author, the book's overall messages of proper environmental stewardship and peaceful co-existence, in conjunction with its presentation of unique and colorful artwork, makes it a decent addition to a child's reading collection.A final note regarding the artwork: In particular, there are at least two depictions in the book that I am slightly amused/ puzzled by. First, in the opening scene of the book, the reader is introduced to Barbapapa, Barbamama, the Barbababies, and their two human friends, Francois and Cindy. It is an idyllic, picnic scene on a pristine riverfront - the Barbababies are engaged in various nature activities, while Barbamama and Barbapapa are eating lunch with Francois and Cindy, who are clad in swim wear... or in the case of Cindy, just barely. She's depicted in the artwork as being topless, wearing only a string-tied pair of white bikini bottoms. (The artist elected to add significant detail to the drawing of Cindy's derriere as well). Even as a young child, I found this depiction to be a bit odd. It was definitely not something that you would normally see in a children's book. The second interesting art choice can be found on the front cover of the book. Here we have the Barba family surrounded by a myriad of friendly animals (Barabeau is lovingly holding a porcupine, Barbamama is feeding a baby seal with a bottle, Francois is sitting on top of an elephant, etc.) However, near the center of the picture, we see the depiction of a white, domestic cat turned about three-quarters away from the viewer, with its tail sticking straight up in the air - thus giving a full view of the cat's exposed anus (depicted by the artist as a stark, black dot against the white fur). I'm not offended by the drawing...But why, out of all of the possible ways that the cat could have been drawn into the scene of the children's book, did the artist make the conscious choice to draw it with its rear end exposed? Once again, this seems a bit odd. In retrospect, my theory is that, in both instances, these were examples of "cheeky" French humor on the part of the artist - Perhaps they were meant as a tacit "poke" at American priggishness and sensibilities.

teaches children an important lesson

Taught me as a child to care about the earth and to recognize that I could make a difference. The story is told in a magical and charming way.

Book was, as advertised, in very good condition. I was grateful to find a copy of this out of print gem!

Lovely book!