Pierre Probst's Caroline Series

Introduction

Pierre Probst is a French gentleman that began writing and illustrating children's stories in the 1950s. According to a web page from Librarie Hachette, he was born in 1913, entered the art schools of Mulhouse, France, and begain drawing paperboards for the silk trade before moving into the press and publicity business. In 1953 he proposed to Hachette a series of small animal characters: Youpi the cocker spaniel, Pipo, Bobi... They were soon joined by a little girl with fair hair named Caroline.

Later in the decade the books were deemed popular enough to be exported and translated. Several of these were translated into English and sold in both the United States and Britain. Some were also translated into German, and, according to the page, languages from Japanese to Swedish. He evidently now still lives in France and produces two new adventures per year. He has also done illustrations for other educational books in his home country.

The Caroline stories are rather straightforward, mostly following Caroline and her friends as they travel and have simple adventures. They are quite cute, and seem to have captured the fancy of many of those that own (or owned and are looking for more of) the books. This, along with an evident low volume of production, has resulted in the fact that on Ebay they garner extremely high bids and (the English versions) are at times among the most valued children's books up for auction. This was especially true during the "high times" between 1999 and 2001; the bid amounts have come down substantially since that time, but are still quite high for the most-desired versions.

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The Characters

Here is a list of the characters of the Caroline series, with their name as it appears in the American translations, British versions, the original French, and in German:

American Name         Caroline Rusty Bobby Puff Inky Mopsy Bruno Leon Spots
British Name Caroline Toffy Binkie Snowy Smokey Pip Broggie Bear Shebo
French Name Caroline Youpi Bobi Pouf Noiraud Pipo Boum Kid Pitou
German Name Katrin Juppi Bobby Mauz Bauz Pipo