Curious George

Celebrate Reading with Curious George!

Who isn't smitten with Curious George? Whether you're 70, 47, or 4 years old, the inquisitive little fellow who always seems to get into one scrape after another has, in all likelihood, captured your heart.

Perhaps his popularity lies in the predictability of his unpredictability. You know that the second the man with the yellow hat leaves the house, warning George to be careful, George is going to get into trouble. And when George starts getting into trouble, he only digs himself deeper.

In Curious George Rides a Bike, he not only makes boats out of all the newspapers he was supposed to deliver, he also ruins his new bike and creates havoc at the circus when the ostrich swallows his bugle. But, in the end, George untangles himself and saves the day: He rescues the baby bear that has escaped from the circus and is applauded for his heroics.

Similarly, in Curious George Goes to the Hospital, his antics cause a terrible mess and disrupt the mayor's visit. But his mischievousness also causes sad little Betsy to dissolve into laughter and enjoy herself for the first time at the hospital. Curious George puts a smile on your face, just as he does with Betsy. He appeals to both the young and the young-at-heart's desire to break the rules just a little and, well, satisfy your curiosity.

As Margret Rey observed, "George can do what kids can't do. He can paint a room from the inside. He can hang from a kite in the sky. He can let the animals out of their pens on the farm. He can do all these naughty things that kids would like to do." One cannot give enough credit to the Reys. H.A.'s delightful illustrations and Margret's clear and precise turn of phrase may appear effortless, but that's only after they labored over each book to achieve that perfect look and tone.

Instead of relying on marketing surveys for book ideas, H. A. and Margret Rey looked to the child within themselves. "I know what I liked as a child," H.A. once said, "and I don't do any book that I, as a child, wouldn't have liked."

	Margret and Hans Rey were both born in Germany. How did they wind up in America?
	After meeting briefly in Germany, Hans and Margret were reunited while working in Rio de Janeiro. They were married in 1935 and moved to Paris soon after. Unfortunately, the political climate in Europe was changing, and by the spring of 1940 Hitler was poised to take over Paris. Hans and Margret fled on homemade bicycles with little more than the clothes on their backs and a handful of manuscripts (one of which starred an inquisitive little monkey named Curious George) hours before German troops marched on the city. After a brief stay in Brazil, they found their way to New York City and eventually settled in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

	Did the Reys like animals?
	Both Hans and Margret were very fond of animals, and their first stop whenever they visited a new city was the zoo. They owned a series of cocker spaniels, which Hans sometimes featured in his illustrations. And Hans was well known around his summer home for rescuing injured animals and nursing them back to health. One of these animalsan orphaned chipmunk named Coffee, whom Hans had hand-fed with an eyedropper and returned to the wildcame back each summer to visit his human friends.

	How did the Reys work together to create their wonderful books?
	Hans liked to say that the couple had "our books, her books, and my books," and the process behind each of these types was different. For the books that they created together, which include the original seven Curious George stories and Whiteblack the Penguin Sees the World, Hans was generally in charge of the ideas and the illustrations, while Margret handled the plot and the writing. However, the lines of responsibility were often blurred on these books, and their collaborative process was more complex than these simple divisions suggest. In addition, Hans produced several astronomy books that did not involve Margret, and Margret wrote books on her own, which Hans illustrated (Pretzel, Spotty).

	Where did Hans and Margret get their ideas?
	Both Hans and Margret believed that ideas could come from anywhere at any time . . . while soaking in the tub, walking through the woods, reading a book, or dining with friends. A news clipping about two mice that were sent into space to study the effects of weightlessness led to George's own space flight in Curious George Gets a Medal. Earlier in the same book, George's bubbly cleaning methods were inspired by a story told to the Reys by a friend. Often, Hans would decide that he would like to see George do something particular, like visit a museum or fly through the air, and this would spark Margret's imagination.

	Did Margret and Hans limit themselves to children's books, or did their creativity find other outlets?
	Margret and Hans founded the first advertising agency in Rio de Janeiro, which allowed Hans to produce a variety of advertising art and Margret to produce ad copy. Throughout his life, Hans also drew maps and posters, illustrated cookbooks, and designed holiday cards for businesses and for his own use. Margret had received formal art training at the Bauhaus and thus was active in both visual and literary arts. In addition to her writing, she was interested in photography, pottery, and needlepoint.

	*Why did Hans have to redraw all the pictures for Curious George?*
	Originally, Hans had created watercolor illustrations for this, his first American book. However, in order to keep printing costs down, many American publishers of this era required their illustrators to create preseparated artwork for their books. This meant that the artist would create four different drawings for each illustrationone drawing for each of the colors of ink that would be applied to the paper. Printer's plates were created from these separations and, if all went well, the colors aligned perfectly on the printed page. In keeping with this practice, Hans was asked to create separations for Curious George, and his original watercolors were tucked away. As the years passed and publishing methods became more sophisticated, the cost of reproducing original artwork fell. In 1998, fifty-seven years after it was first published, Houghton Mifflin produced a collector's edition of The Original Curious George that was printed from Hans's original watercolors.

	*How did Curious George Goes to the Hospital* come about?**
	The Reys created this book at the request of officials at Boston Children's Hospital, who wanted a book to prepare children for a hospital stay. The book was difficult to write but brought a great deal of satisfaction to the Reys because so many parents wrote to tell them how effective it was in reducing their child's trauma.

	Why didn't Margret's name appear on all the early Curious George books?
	As Margret tells it, "When we first came to America our publisher suggested we use my husband's name because the children's book field was so dominated by women. They thought it would sell better. After a time I thought 'Why the devil did I do that?' so since then my name has appeared also."

	How large a role did George play in the Reys' daily lives?
	George was, as Margret liked to say, "Not an obsession with me at all. But he is the family breadwinner; he has put food on my table for many, many years." As such, he was afforded a place of honor in their home, and there were various drawings, toys, trinkets, and the like depicting George. From time to time, too, the Reys would grant interviews about their most famous creation, or meet with their young fans.

	Isn't there an interesting story behind the 2000 publication of Whiteblack the Penguin Sees the World?
	Anita Silvey, who at the time was the publisher for Houghton Mifflin Children's Books, discovered the manuscript at an exhibition of the Reys' papers presented by the de Grummond Collection at the University of Southern Mississippi. As Anita tells the story, "I noticed a case enclosing an intriguing watercolor drawing labeled 'Unpublished work of H. A. Rey.' Within a few minutes, Dee [Jones, curator of the de Grummond Collection] produced the original sketches for a book . . . suddenly I realized that the Reys had clearly brought a fifth book from Paris." Houghton Mifflin published this "lost" manuscript amid much excitement and acclaim.

	What is the Curious George Foundation and what does it do?
	The Curious George Foundation was established in 1989 by Margret Rey to provide financial assistance to causes that she believed in. The foundation funds programs for children who share Curious George's irresistible qualities curiosity in learning, exploring, ingenuity, opportunity, and determination. Much consideration is given to programs that benefit animals, through preservation as well as the prevention of cruelty to animals. Another area of giving centers around community outreach that emphasizes the importance of family, from counseling to peer support groups that help strengthen ties to keep family units strong. The Curious George Foundation wasn't the only philanthropic endeavor in Margret's life she also funded a center for alternative medicine at a local Boston hospital, and she donated generously to the Boston Public Library.

Hans Augusto Rey was born on September 16, 1898 in Hamburg, Germany. He grew up there near the world-famous Hagenbeck Zoo, and developed a lifelong love for both animals and drawing. Margarete Elisabeth Waldstein (who would be known to most of the world as Margret Rey) was also born in Hamburg on May 16, 1906. The two met briefly when Margret was a young girl, before she left Hamburg to study art. They were reunited in 1935 in Rio de Janeiro, where Hans was selling bathtubs as part of a family business and where Margret had gone to escape the political climate in Germany. Margret convinced Hans to leave the family business, and soon they were working together on a variety of projects.

Hans and Margret were married in Brazil on August 16, 1935, but they moved to Paris after falling in love with the city during their European honeymoon. It was there that Hans published his first children's book, after a French publisher saw his newspaper cartoons of a giraffe and asked him to expand upon them. Raffy and the Nine Monkeys (Cecily G. and the Nine Monkeys in English) was the result, and it marked the debut of a mischievous monkey named Curious George.

After Raffy and the Nine Monkeys was published, the Reys decided that Curious George deserved a book of his own, so they began work on a manuscript that featured the lovable and exceedingly curious little monkey. But the late 1930's and early 40s were a tumultuous time in Europe, and before the new manuscript could be published, the Reysboth German Jewsfound themselves in a horrible situation. Hitler and his Nazi party were tearing through Europe, and they were poised to take control of the city. Knowing that they must escape before the Nazis took power, Hans cobbled together two bicycles out of spare parts. Early in the morning of June 14, 1940, the Reys set off on their bicycles. They brought very little with them on their pre-dawn flight . . . only warm coats, a bit of food, and five manuscripts, one of which was Curious George. The Nazis entered Paris just hours later, but the Reys were already on their way. They rode their makeshift bicycles for four long days until reaching the French-Spanish border, where they sold them for train fare to Lisbon. From there they made their way to Brazil and on to New York City, where they began a whole new life as children's book authors.

Curious George was published by Houghton Mifflin in 1941, and for sixty years these books have been capturing the hearts and minds of readers throughout the world. All the Curious George books, including the seven original stories by Margret and Hans, have sold over 25 million copies. So popular that his original story has never been out of print, George has become one of the most beloved and most recognizable characters from children's literature. His adventures have been translated into many languages, including Japanese, French, Afrikaans, Portuguese, Swedish, German, Chinese, Danish, and Norwegian.

Although both of the Reys have passed awayHans in 1977 and Margret in 1996George lives on in the Curious George Foundation. Established in 1989, this foundation funds programs for children that share Curious George's irresistible qualitiesingenuity, opportunity, determination, and curiosity in learning and exploring. Much consideration is given to programs that benefit animals, through preservation as well as the prevention of cruelty to animals. Another area of giving centers around community outreach that emphasizes the importance of family, from counseling to peer support groups that help strengthen ties to keep family units strong.