Houghton Mifflin Harcourt has published several Curious George books, including board books with illustrations from the first books, books based on the telefilm series from the 1980s, and new adventures.
Who is Curious George?
A series of well-known children’s picture books featuring the fictional monkey Curious George was written by Margret and H. A. Rey and illustrated by Alan Shalleck.
The original book series has served as the inspiration for numerous media, including movies and TV shows. “A good little monkey and always very curious” is how one person describes George.
He is portrayed without a tail, even though he is referred to as a monkey throughout the entire series. George is captured by “The Man in the Yellow Hat” in the first book and brought from Africa to America, where the two live together.
The Man in the Yellow Hat and George become friends and go on adventures together. In the 1939 French original of Cecily G. and the Nine Monkeys, George made his first appearance as a monkey named “Fifi.”
The Reys decided to give “George” his own series due to the popularity of the character. Hans Augusto (H. A.) Rey and Margret Rey, a husband and wife team, wrote the original series.
The Curious George manuscript was taken with the Jewish couple as they fled Paris in June 1940 on homemade bicycles.
To set the Reys’ books apart from the numerous other children’s books written by women, only H. A. Rey was initially given credit for the work.
The first seven books’ illustrations were done by H.A. Rey. Later, Alan J. Shalleck was credited for the illustrations, and Hans Rey and Margret Rey for the writing.
The Curious George series was the most well-known of the children’s books the Reys produced. Each book has remained in print ever since it was first released.
How did Curious George die?
The man in a yellow hat killed Curious George. On the morning Curious George looked out the window and noticed a peculiar van, which was located outside of The Man in the Yellow Hat’s apartment.
The van, which was marked “free candy,” belonged to Vanna White and was used to abduct kids from the streets. It was an old child molester van.
George was excluded by Vanna because he was not a human, and he was disappointed that he was not allowed to travel with the other kids in the van’s back seat.
The Man in the Yellow Hat took a power nap, and when he woke up at 6:02 a.m., George had left. It triggered The Man in the Yellow Hat. That day, he had had enough of George.
George had trashed his apartment the day before, and the day before that, he had made a delicious casserole out of his yellow hat. The homicidal tendencies of the man in the yellow hat would be disastrous.
The Man in the Yellow Hat set out on a search for George at 6:41 a.m. After searching for George for a while in an effort to “beat the living hell out of him for failing to sell overpriced coffee to orphans,” he eventually found George at a bus stop, where he was picked up.
The Man in the Yellow Hat saw Curious George furiously humping a fire hydrant at 6:60 in the morning. The man in the yellow hat was embarrassed and furious at this point.
In a fit of rage, he turned the bus around at 69th and Blaze Streets in Mount Slincy after stabbing the driver 37 times in the chest.
As soup time was happening beneath the wheels of the 4.5-ton public bus, which was crushing all of George’s bones, at 6:61 a.m., Curious George was heard wailing.
After the event, surveillance cameras showed The Man in the Yellow Hat snorting his bone marrow.
Curious George Controversy
With its inquisitive protagonist and entertaining shenanigans, the Curious George series often proves to be the ideal childhood companion.
However, the series’ earlier books pose a problem because they make overt references to the kidnapping and forced enslavement of Africans.
They glorify the Man in the Yellow Hat, who is celebrated as a friend and protector rather than demonized as a captor and oppressor during the slave trade.
The series’ celebration of the oppression of a kidnapped monkey parallels the oppression of black Americans, making the book’s notoriety appear in opposition to the innocence-promoting environment that contemporary society has determined is essential for children’s healthy and proper development.
