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] The first book in the Curious George series, it tells the story of a monkey named George, who was taken into captivity by
the Man with the Yellow Hat.[2] For 83 years (as of October 4, 2024), 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 character of George the monkey originated from the 1939 publication of Cecily G. and the Nine Monkeys, co-written by the Reys and printed in Paris.[5] London-based publisher Grace Hogarth offered a four-book deal to the Reys upon reading their original version of Curious George, and asked the Reys to consider changing the monkey's name from Fifi to Curious George. Curious George was published in America in August 1941, with an initial print run of 7,500 copies and a price of $2.00.[5] 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
George is a curious monkey living in an African jungle. "The Man in the Yellow Hat" meets George and places his yellow straw hat on the ground. A curious George puts it on his head, blocking his sight. With George unable to see, The Man puts him in a bag, capturing him.
The two go on a big ship, George being sad but still curious. The Man gets George out of the bag and tells him that The Man is taking him to a big zoo in a big city and asks George not to get in trouble. George promises but sees seagulls and tries to fly like them. He falls into the water, struggling to swim, and the ship's crew saves him by throwing him a lifebelt. After a long trip, The Man and George reach land and go to The Man's home. After having a meal and smoking a pipe, George becomes tired and falls asleep in his bed in large, human-sized pajamas.
The next morning, The Man telephones the zoo. When he leaves, George, being curious, uses the telephone. He dials the numbers on the phone over and over again.
George (with the phone) dials the numbers continuously. However, he made a false fire alarm and telephoned the fire station. When George says nothing to the firemen, they think there is a fire. And the map locates George's signal. The firefighters forget that it was George and thought it was a real fire.
After the signal highlights George's location on the map, the firemen rush on their fire engines to The Man's house. When the firemen find no fire, they arrest him for the false alarm. They tell George that since he fooled the fire department they will have to shut him up in a prison where he cannot do anymore 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 by trying to get him down. However he's heavy that the bed tips over and he falls over against the wall, stalling him. George is able to slip past and escape through the open door and climbs onto the roof, walking across the power lines above a guard's head.
He finds a man selling balloons; wanting a red balloon, George tries to grab it but accidentally grabs all the balloons instead. The wind blows the balloons and George away over the big city (from his view, the houses and people looked like toy houses and dolls, respectively), then he lands on a traffic light pole. The Man sees George from his car, and George slides down the pole into his arms. The Man pays the balloon man for the balloons, and then drives George to his wonderful new home at the zoo.
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.[6] Since its publishing, the book has never gone out of print and has sold over 25 million copies.[3] 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.[8] The Reys have also published more books relating to conservation efforts and environmental awareness including Curious George Plants a Seed in 2007 and Curious George Plants a Tree in 2010.[citation needed]
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.[10]
Professor and children's literature scholar June Cummins assesses Curious George from a postcolonial perspective, arguing that many elements of story parallel African slave-captivity narratives (such as George's capture and journey across the Atlantic reflecting the horrors of the Middle Passage) and treat George as a colonial subject. In this way, Cummins concludes, the Curious George series portrays and excuses both imperialism and colonialism, and reflects the cultural ambivalence that many Americans display towards the nation's history of slavery.[12]
In her book tracing themes of racism, colonialism, and American exceptionalism in the Curious George series, author Rae Lynn Schwartz-DuPre also argues for a postcolonial reading of Curious George and contends that the series should be framed as a "classic example of colonial children's literature". She discusses George as an agent of Americanization who is used to promote insidious notions of American exceptionalism, yet is protected from critique as a beloved and nostalgic cultural icon of childhood adventure and naiveté.[13]
Curious George & Friends bookstore, Harvard Square, 2007
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. Having been raised in the cosmopolitan city of Hamburg (and its suburb Altona) and later spending time in England, Brazil, and France, the Rey's were both polyglots, with Margret achieving fluency in three languages and Hans in "no fewer than four". Professor Yulia Komska notes that, despite the authors' self-professed multilingual backgrounds, the Curious George series is monolingual and features a monkey who cannot speak.[5]
The Reys 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]
^Marion, Allison; Peacock, Scot (September 1989). "Children's Literature Review". School Library Journal. 35 (13): 164 – via Gale Literature Resource Center.[verification needed]
^ abMaughan, Shannon (19 April 1993). "Audio reviews -- Curious George by H. A. Rey". Publishers Weekly. 240 (16): 29. ProQuest196986980.
^Mehegan, David (27 December 1996). "'Curious George' creators thrilled children, bedeviled critics Margaret and H.A. Rey's books had simple formula". Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. p. 7. ProQuest260471122.
