http://www.usatoday.com/life/books/news ... hoff_n.htm
He uses his imagination and his own experiences. His 1965 book, Babar Comes to America, followed his first U.S. visit, a cross-country book tour. His latest, Celesteville Games, was inspired by a Hindu wedding he and his wife attended in India that was "ablaze with color," the bride in red, the groom's friends in pink turbans, marigold petals in the air.
He and his wife decided that Flora, an African elephant, would marry an Indian elephant. "But how does she meet an Indian elephant?" he asked himself. "What would bring an Indian elephant to Celesteville?" At the time, he and his wife were watching the Beijing Olympics, which inspired the idea of the Celesteville Games, where alligators master the hanging hoops and elephants soar in the pole vault.