Curious George (book)

Curious George

First edition cover
Author	Margret Rey H. A. Rey
Country	United States
Language	English
Series	Curious George
Genre	Children's literature
Publisher	Houghton Mifflin
Publication date	1941
Media type	Print
Followed by	Curious George Takes a Job

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 it tells the story of an orphaned chimpanzee (referred to as a monkey in the books) named George and his adventures with the Man with the Yellow Hat.^[2] As of May 1, 2021, it has sold over 25 million copies, and has been translated into various different languages such as Japanese, French, Afrikaans, Portuguese, Swedish, German, Chinese, Danish, and Norwegian.^[3] It is also in the Indie Choice Book Awards Picture Book Hall of Fame^[4] and has been the subject of scholarly criticism.

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 H.A. 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 orphaned chimpanzee (referred as a "monkey"), in the jungle of Africa. A Man with a Yellow Hat observes him through his binoculars and decides to bring 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. He puts the hat on but it is so large that he cannot see and this gives The Man In The Yellow Hat the chance to capture him and put him in a bag. The man takes George in a rowboat to his cruise ship where he tells George that he is taking him to a 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 birds, tries to fly, and falls overboard. 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 says goodbye to the sailors, and is then taken to the man's house, where he has a meal, smokes a pipe, and then goes to bed. The next day, after seeing the man make a telephone call to the zoo before leaving, George decides to try the telephone himself. He plays with the telephone until he inadvertently calls the fire station and sets off a false fire alarm. The firefighters (who hear the call and the alarm) are unaware that it is George. Then they look at a signal screen (revealing a map) and the location highlights where the telephone call had come from. As a result, they think it is a real fire. They get into their fire trucks quickly but when they rush to the house all they find is no fire but a little monkey (which is George). A skinny firefighter caught one arm and the fat one caught the other. They arrest him for the false alarm. They tell George that since he fooled the fire department, they will have to shut him in a prison where he cannot do any more harm.

George wanted to get out so he climbed up to the window to try the bars. At that moment, a watchman comes in and climbs on a wooden bed to catch George. The watchman, however, is heavy that the bed tips over and he gets pinned against the wall, thus stalling him. This quickly buys George enough time to run out the open door. After escaping, he spots a balloon vendor out in the street and tries to grab a balloon but ends up grabbing the entire bunch and gets sent flying off into the air. Down below, the houses and people look like toy houses and dolls, respectively. George is carried by the breeze until it fades out, leaving George on top of a traffic signal, which mixes up traffic. The man with the yellow hat 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.

Reception[]

Sales and Republication[]

Five years after the book’s publication, Houghton Mifflin almost stopped printing the book due to its low demand, but it later became much more popular.^[5] Since its publishing, the book has never gone out of print and has sold over 25 million copies.^[6] The book has been published in paperback, hardcover, pop-up book,^[7] and audiobook.^[8]

Critical Commentary[]

Curious George has received many positive reviews from critics as well as a few negative ones. Critic David Mehegan of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel argues that children should understand that Curious George’s curiosity does get him into a lot of trouble, such as when he floats away on the balloons, but his curiosity makes life more interesting. Ultimately, children relate to this character because he, like them, “impulsively breaks commonsense rules set by grown-ups in a desire to understand the marvelous new world around him.”^[9]

Critic Shannon Maughan of Publishers Weekly claims this book can be used by teachers to help promote conservation of forests and the species inside of them.^[10] The Reys have also published more books relating to conservation efforts and environmental awareness including in 2007 and in 2010.

In author Rivka Gachen's New Yorker piece, she found contradictory parallels in Curious George to the Middle Passage and the “reassuring and almost fantastical sense of wealth." Gachen claims the idea that a monkey being taken from Africa and almost drowning in the Atlantic Ocean can be very closely paralleled with the Middle Passage. On the other hand, the material goods that George receives once he arrives in America contradict these original ideas.^[11]

Accolades[]

Curious George was a finalist for induction into the American Booksellers Association Indies Choice Book Awards Picture Book Hall of Fame in 2009, 2010, and 2011.^[12] In 2012, the book was officially inducted into the Hall.^[13]

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.^[14][15] 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 in 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.^[16] A new store opened in 2012 at the same address, called The World's Only Curious George Store - Harvard Square. In June 2019, this new store closed.^[17]

References[]