Curious George Learns the Alphabet

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Curious George Learns The Alphabet

First edition
Author	H. A. Rey Margret Rey
Country	United States
Language	English
Series	Curious George
Genre	Children's literature
Publisher	Houghton Mifflin
Publication date	1963
Media type	Print
Preceded by	Curious George Flies a Kite
Followed by	Curious George Goes to the Hospital

Curious George Learns the Alphabet is a children's book written and illustrated by Margret Rey and H. A. Rey and published by Houghton Mifflin in 1963. It is the sixth book in the original Curious George series.

Plot[]

George curiously looks at the little black marks, dots, and lines in the Man with the Yellow Hat's books, and starts tearing some pages. Suddenly, the Man with the Yellow Hat scolds George for tearing his books apart to clarify that books are for reading because they are full of stories, which are made of words, and letters that make up them. If George wants to read a story, he first has to know the letters of the alphabet. The man then sets up a pad and begins to write each of the letters from the alphabet as well as drawing a picture for each letter (capital and lowercase letter) of the alphabet, correlating to the letter each individual picture starts with.

• The capital A represents an Alligator, and the lowercase a represents a piece of an apple (an apple slice).
• The capital B looks like a blue Bird with feet on it, a tail, and a Bill, and the lowercase b represents a bee buzzing around a blossom.
• The capital C represents a big Crab with a shell, feet, and two claws. The lowercase c is like the big C, but smaller, so it becomes a small crab.

The man tells George he now has three letters: A, B, and C. With three letters, George can make a word, the first word he can read himself. The word is a cab. George knows what a cab is since the man once took him for a ride in a cab (a reference to a previous story). The man and George then draw the next few letters.

• The big D represents a Dinosaur and the small d looks like a dromedary, which is a camel (also known as the Arabian camel) with one hump.
• The big E represents an Elephant eating his evening meal: Eggplants. The small e resembles the ear of a man, or the ear of a monkey.
• The big F represents a Fireman Fighting a Fire and the small f represents a flower. (George's friend was fond of flowers, but George preferred food.)
• The big G represents a Goose, and the small g represents a goldfish. George's name also starts with G.

The man tells George he now has seven letters: A, B, C, D, E, F, and G, and that these letters can be built with quite a few words. The man tells George he have written some of them down: Dad, Ed, bad, bag, cage, bed, and feed. The man then tells George to read them while he gets him his lunch. However, when the man comes back with George's lunch, he catches George wearing the alphabet chart around his neck. He is impressed about George's real words (Dad, Ed, bag, cage, bed, and feed), but scolds him for his mischief. He says that even though George knows how to spell and read those words, it seems the only word he also can read is "bad". The man then decides they've had enough for one morning. He will feed George now and take his nap. Then, George and the man will go on with the letters.

• The capital H represents a house and the small h represents a horse eating heaps of hay.
• The capital I resembles an icicle, and the lowercase i represents an iguana.
• The capital J represents a Jaguar living in the Jungle, where George formerly lives. The lowercase j represents a jack-in-the-box in which George used to make it jump.
• The capital K represents a big Kangaroo named Katy and the lowercase k represents a small kangaroo who is Katy's kid.
• The capital L represents a Lion (with a Leg of Lamb for Lunch) and the lowercase l represents a lean lady strolling along a lake licking a lollipop.
• The capital M represents a Mailman named Mister Miller bringing a letter, and the lowercase m represents a mouse is munching mints.

The man tells George that M is the thirteenth letter of the alphabet, which means they are halfway through. George can make lots of words with 13 letters from A through M. The man gives him a pad of paper and a pencil. George started to think of words, and then he wrote them down and shows them to the man. Though he is quite impressed with the real words (ball, milk, cake, ham, jam, egg, lime, feed, and kid), the man gets confused at the made-up words (dalg, glidj, and blimlimlim) because there are no such words, and tells George that any letters do not make just any kind of words. George and the man then continue to look at the other half of the alphabet.

• The capital N represents a Napkin standing on a dinner plate that looks neat, and the small n represents a nose in the face of a man who wears a new blue necktie and nibbles noodles.
• The capital O represents a big Ostrich, and the lowercase o represents a small ostrich. (Ostriches eat odd objects, especially eat a bugle that belonged to George (a reference to a previous story).
• The capital P represents a big Penguin, and the lowercase p represents a small penguin.
• The capital Q represents a Quail. The lowercase q represents a quarterback. A quarterback has to be quick, so is George.

The man tells George to get his football. He then says that it will do George good to play a little before they go on with the letters.

• The capital R represents a Rabbit with a radish, and the lowercase r represents a rooster.
• The capital S represents a big Snail, and the lowercase s represents a small snail.
• The capital T represents a Table set for a Tea for Two (George did not care for Tea, but liked Toast), and the lowercase t represents a tomahawk.

The man tells George that it is snack time. He gives George a note to run over to the baker and hand him the note and to come right back with one dozen doughnuts without any tricks. George curiously looks at the note the man had written and tries to outsmart his plan by changing the word “one” to "ten." Then, he goes over to the bakery to request ten dozen doughnuts to the baker. The baker --unaware that the note originally and specifically said "one dozen"-- says that an extra-large bag is needed for ten dozen doughnuts, since it is too much (but that is what the note says). George brings the bag of ten dozen (120) doughnuts home, opens the bag and dumps them out onto the floor. When the man catches George for dumping all the doughnuts down to the floor and changing the note, he scolds him and says that it must be what he (himself) gets for teaching the alphabet to a little monkey. The man tells George he cannot eat any doughnuts right now and to put them back in the bag, so that they will finish the alphabet. As a result, snack time is postponed until the after the alphabet is finished.

• The capital U represents a big Umbrella standing Upright and the lowercase u represents a small umbrella. The umbrella handle is also like a U.
• The capital V is a big Valentine, and the lowercase v is a small valentine. George loved valentines. He got several valentine cards every year, especially from Nevada.
• The capital W and the lowercase w are whiskers, big ones and small ones, found on walruses, cats, and some men. George does not have whiskers but he was curious how would look if he did.
• The capital X and the lowercase x look alike, only one is big and one is small, just some of the other letters (such as W, V, U, S, etc.). Since there are only a few words that start with an X, they don't look like an X, except for X-mas. Santa stands for X-mas. Since there is only one Santa, George and the man need only one picture. As a result, the big X and the small x are both for X-mas.
• The capital Y is a big Yak, and the lowercase y is a small, young yak in Tibet.
• The capital Z is a big Zebra, and the lowercase z is a small zebra. The zebras are zipping along with zest.

Since Z is the last letter of the alphabet, the man tells George that he now knows all 26 letters of the alphabet, and now he may have the doughnuts. At the last page, the story ends when George (before eating the doughnuts) takes most of the doughnuts and spells out the word "THE END."