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. Margaret 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 man with the yellow hat captures a monkey called George in the jungle. They sail aboard a ship for a big city and George falls into the sea while imitating some birds. He is rescued and the ship finally puts into port. The man goes home with George but the monkey plays with the telephone and inadvertently calls the fire station, and is unfortunately taken to jail. Luckily, he escapes jail. Later, he tries to grab a balloon from a vendor, but takes the entire bunch and sails away high into the sky. The wind dies down and George descends, landing on a traffic signal. The man rescues him, buys all the balloons from the vendor, and takes George and the balloons to the zoo, George's new home.

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