I Was Curious, George

Toddlers are very strict when it comes to routine. They know what they need, and they know what they like, and woe betide a parent who tries to change anything about their routine without "permission". This is especially true when it comes to bedtime stories; you will read Goodnight Moon, Green Eggs And Ham, If You Hold My Hand, et cetera, so many times that you begin to see the appeal of a good old fashioned book burning.

Or worse, you find yourself talking in verse to the child; shouting something like "will you come inside, before I have to tan your hide!" makes people look at you funny. And by people, I mean everyone who is not your child. Your child just ignores you, of course, and goes on about his business.

At the moment, we are completely enthralled by Curious George. We have been reading the original every night for about 5 weeks now and, surprisingly, I have yet to get truly sick of it. The artwork is sublime and the storyline is very apt for our own naughty monkey. I never read it as a child myself, and neither did The Princess when she was small, so it's all new to me. It's very non-PC, which is enormously refreshing. George has a dustup with a "fat fireman", is thrown into a dingy prison for crank calling the fire station, and steals balloons. However, one page in particular really caught our attention:

"After a good meal and a good pipe, George felt very tired". A good pipe and he felt very tired?!! Say what? The Princess was intrigued as well; a monkey smoking? Why? I was at a loss to explain it (although The Husband and I have often speculated on what exactly was in that pipe that made him so tired, but that's a different post for another day).

These days any children's author who dared mention smoking in a children's book would be instantly tarred, feathered and run out of town on a rail, so to see Curious George smoking and obviously enjoying it is an eye-catcher. I can only guess that it remains in print as-is because the "but what about the children" brigade can't touch a 60-year old classic.

The Princess and I finally came to the unsatisfactory conclusion that if nothing else, a monkey smoking a pipe is always funny (even if it's just an illustrated monkey.)

Anyway, I was *ahem* curious, and did a little research into the origin of the book (I am the cranky sort of person who needs historical context when asked a question I can't answer). What I found was a fascinating story of triumph over adversity best chronicled in The Journey That Saved Curious George: The True Wartime Escape of Margret and H.A. Rey, by Louis Borden.

It seems H.A. Rey and his wife, Margret, were German Jews who moved to Paris in 1935. They had already published one successful book there and were hard at work on several others when WWII broke out and Hitler started his push into France. Realizing that they had to escape before the Nazis took power, they cobbled together two bicycles out of spare parts and, early in the morning of June 14th, 1940, set off just a few hours before the Nazi tanks rolled in to occupy Paris.

They brought with them only warm coats, a bit of food and five manuscripts, one of which was Curious George. They road their makeshift bikes for nearly four days until they reached the French-Spanish border and then sold them for train fair to Lisbon. From there they made their way to Brazil and on to New York where they quickly found a publisher for Curious George in 1941. The rest, as they say, is history.

It is an interesting true life tale, but it didn't really answer my question. However, I reckon after you've barely escaped from almost certain death at the hands of Jew-hating Nazis, a pipe smoking monkey doesn't seem so odd, really.

For me, learning about the Rey's story has certainly added a new depth of appreciation for the series; if the Nazis had caught them, we would likely never have known George at all, much less wondered why he likes a good pipe now and again....