Curious George (book)

Curious George is a children's book written and illustrated by Margret Rey and H. A. Rey, and published by Houghton Mifflin in 1941.^[1] It is the first book in the Curious George series and tells the story of a monkey called George and his adventures with the Man with the Yellow Hat.^[2]

Background

The idea for Curious George came from an earlier Rey work, Cecily G. and the Nine Monkeys. One of the characters in that story is Curious George. Margret and Rey then decided to create a book entirely focused on Curious George, which was an instant success. However, Margret Rey's name did not appear on early copies of Curious George because the publisher felt that children's literature was too dominated by women.^[2]

Plot

The story opens with George, a little brown monkey, in the jungle. An unnamed man in a large yellow straw hat spots him through his binoculars and decides he would like to take the monkey home with him. He puts his hat on the ground and hides behind a tree. George, ever curious, comes down from the tree "to look at the large yellow hat." He puts the hat on but it is so large that he can't see and that gives the Man in the Yellow hat the opportunity to capture him and put him in a bag. The Man takes George to his cruise ship where he tells him that he is taking him to stay at the zoo in a big city and that he will like it there. He then gives George the run of the ship and tells him not to get into trouble. On deck, George sees some seagulls, tries to fly with them and falls overboard. Luckily, the crew notices that George is missing, and spot him in the Atlantic Ocean. They throw him a lifesaver and pull him aboard.

When they arrive in America, George is taken to the Man's house, has a meal, smokes a pipe, then goes to bed. The next day, having watched the Man make a telephone call before leaving, George plays with the telephone and inadvertently calls the fire station. The firemen rush to the house, only to discover Curious George and no fire. They arrest him for the false alarm and put him in jail.

Curious George tries to climb through the window, but there are bars. At that moment, the guard comes in and climbs up on a wooden bed to reach George. The guard is so heavy that the bed tips over and pins him against the wall, stalling him long enough for George to run out the open door to break out of jail. He then climbs over the guard in front of the jail, using the telephone wires. Out in the street, he spots a balloon vendor and tries to grab a balloon, but ends up grabbing the entire bunch and flying off into the air. He's carried by the breeze until it stops, leaving George on the top of a traffic signal. The Man finds him there, buys all the balloons from the street vendor and finally takes George to his new home at the zoo, where each animal gets its own balloon.

About the authors

Main articles: Margret Rey and H. A. Rey

Margret Elizabeth Rey (May 16, 1906 – December 21, 1996) and her husband Hans Augusto "H.A." Rey (September 16, 1898 – August 26, 1977) met each other in Brazil and then moved to Paris. After moving several places to escape the Nazis, they settled down in New York.^[3][4] It was here that they wrote Curious George and seven other books about him including Curious George Takes a Job, which won the Lewis Carroll Shelf Award in 1960. The Reys then moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts during 1963, in a house near Harvard Square, and lived there until Hans's death in 1977. A children's bookstore named Curious George & Friends (formerly Curious George Goes to Wordsworth) was started in the 1990s by friends of the Reys, and operated in the Square until 2011.^[5] A new store opened in 2012 at the same address, called The World's Only Curious George Store - Harvard Square.

References