In honor of yoga tonight

Reader, do you love Babar like I do?

And make no mistake about it - that's in present tense for good reason.  Babar and his brood of elephants were a beloved cast of characters in my childhood.  He, obviously, was the king of the elephants.  He had a wife, Celeste, and three children: Pom, Flora and Alexander.  They got into various adventures over the course of a series of children's books.  My dad has made Babar replicas out of both snow and ground beef.  (Truth.)  A quick wikipedia search reveals that some critics assert that Babar's stories are politically charged and loaded with justification for colonialism.  If that is true, it totally went over my head as a youth.  I just loved Babar, his little green suit and his little elephant family.  That's all.

So it makes perfect sense, you understand, when this book landed in my basket during an expedition to a bookstore over the weekend:

Now you get a sense of why my bookcase is crammed full, right?  Because I buy books like this and love them all...although I kind of want to give this one prime real estate on my coffee table.  There is a great line introducing one of the poses, for example, by noting that it was designed primarily for elephants and that humans should not feel frustrated if they can't do it.

Or this gem:

"The life of a modern-day elephant is stressful and complicated. Yoga turned out to be exactly what we in Celesteville needed, offering calm and control in days that were busy and demanding."

Per Amazon, this book is "perfect for anyone who loves yoga or elephants."  I wholeheartedly agree.