Curious George (book)
First edition cover
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| Author |
Margret Rey H. A. Rey |
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| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Series | Curious George |
| Genre | Children's literature |
| Publisher | Houghton Mifflin |
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Publication date
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1941 |
| Media type | |
| 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. It is the first book in the Curious George series and tells the story of a orphaned monkey called George and his adventures with the Man with the Yellow Hat.
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.
The story opens with George, a little orphaned 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 escape 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.
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