Customer Reviews

Curious George Takes a Job

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This classic children's book is a delightful tale of a monkey on his quest to find the man in the big yellow hat. Follow Curious George as he tries to escape from the zoo. There is a turn at every corner. Curious George can't seem to avoid mischief. The illustrations seem to say more than the words. This book is for all ages and is enjoyable whether being read to or reading by yourself. I highly recommend all the Curious George books.

I liked this book a lot. Curious George books are great. He is always getting into trouble and it keeps you reading. I still haven't watched the movie yet but the books make me want to. My 2 year old sister likes them too. It is a good family read. Enjoy!
Jacob - 5 and 3/4 finally (with a little help)

I was already a "big girl" of thirteen, when this came out, but I still enjoyed it, and remembered certain scenes when I read this to my little boys. They empathize with George as he escapes the zoo to find his dear friend, the Man in the Yellow Hat. Witty and captivating illustrations immortalize George`s amusing series of adventures which culminate in a role in the movies. Lots of fun.

Curious George has a handful of adventures after he escapes from his zoo cage and wanders about the big city by himself. The story is cute and interesting for my 3 year old, but it teaches a very strange lesson that it is not okay to be curious.

Curiosity is something that kids that age have. They want to know everything! So why is the book so adamant against curiosity? It portrays curiosity in the worst light possible. George finds himself in trouble after his curiosity leads him to peek inside windows while window washing. Curiosity is the root cause of the entire misadventure, since it is what lured him out of his cage.

He learns his lesson about how curiosity is something to be repressed after he jumps off of a fire escape and breaks his leg. Luckily, the man in the big yellow hat discovers George in the hospital and takes him to safety and turns him into a big movie star.

Should children really be told that curiosity is something bad? After three reads, I simply can't recommend it. The book is beautifully drawn and the text is easy to read aloud. It's just that the moral of the story seems to be so at odds with what I want to teach that I have to mark it down.

This is another of the Reys' gleeful books of monkey business. In this one, George escapes from the zoo, wanders into a restaurant and gets caught eating the pasta, takes a job as a window-washer (and gets distracted painting a jungle-scape in someone's apartment), and takes a fall from the fire escape, landing himself in the hospital, where the man with the yellow hat comes to rescue him.

The book is characterized by the excellent writing of the classic Curious George series, with fast-moving action and a lovable, mischievous character all good children love to vicariously enjoy. It's appropriate for preschool through elementary school ages.

As last week was National Children's Book Week, and CG Takes a Job happens to be my favorite, I figured I'd say a few words about it. As a VERY curious five year old boy whose father bought him a Curious George stuffed animal at the tender age of two, I was in awe of the fact that not only could George paint a pretty cool mural of the jungle on an unappreciative woman's wall, but he could WASH DISHES WITH BOTH HIS HANDS AND HIS FEET! This blew my mind. Here I was, an impressionable (and curious) young lad, who watched his own parents dread washing the dishes, and this monkey did it in double the time. I was hooked. This is still my favorite book, even if it wanders a bit (from the zoo, to a restaurant, to an apartment building, to the hospital to . . . well, you get the idea), I still recommend it for curious kids and adults alike.

News Flash!

In the skyscraper apartment building yesterday a monkey hired to wash windows painted a woman's apartment to look like an African jungle. Hired by the elevator man, he was warned not to get too curious but to stick to his work.

At first the monkey, at the time of this report we do not yet know his name, worked without even looking in the windows. But when he got to an apartment being painted, according to the painters we questioned, he got too curious, stopped working, and watched the painters.

When the painters left for lunch the monkey entered the apartment and used their paint to recreate his native African environment on the walls and furniture coverings of the apartment, complete with palm trees, butterflies, birds, two leopards, one zebra, one giraffe, grass, bushes and a portrait of the "artist" playing in the trees.

Returning from lunch the painters discovered the monkey finishing his creation. The painters, with the apartment owner and the elevator man, chased the monkey down the fire escape.

Forgetting that concrete was much harder than the African jungle ground, the monkey made a foolish leap to the pavement and broke his leg. An ambulance arrived and took the monkey to the hospital where, at press time, he is receiving medical treatment pending identification.

The woman whose apartment he painted said, "He got what he deserved! Making my apartment into a jungle, indeed!" and the elevator man added, "I told him he would get into trouble (if) he was too curious."

If you want to learn not to be too curious, to see how a monkey got hired as a window washer, to find out whether the monkey survives the hospital and to enjoy all of the other funny stuff this little monkey does, then read "Curious George Takes a Job!" A very funny book!

I love all the curious George books. Who Doesn't?

author of "Hobo Finds A Home"

If you've raised any children in the last 57 years, you've probably already read H. A. Rey's 1947 children's classic "Curious George Takes a Job" and you already know how... questionable some of its content is. For those of you who don't have kids, you should know what's in this book before buying it.

Check out page 17. Curious George has been found literally swimming in a vast vat of pasta. Instead of calling animal control and having him put down and tested for rabies, the cook who catches him in flagrante de pesto, instead puts him to work washing dishes -- with both the monkey's hands and his FEET. I sincerely hope no one actually ate off those dishes afterwards. Where is the heath department when you need them?

Anyway, the cook sends him to work with the Elevator Man, washing windows on the outside of a hi-rise building (without a safety-line!!!). Curious George sneaks into a room, paints it, and dashes down the fire escape. He falls and breaks his leg. We're treated to a picture of a crying monkey with a wobbly leg, bent in four or five places.

In the hospital, on page 36, George has recovered from his broken leg and is left alone for a few minutes. Okay, to keep it brief: he gets into the ether. This violates EVERYTHING I was taught in school about drugs not being fun. And then, on the next page you can tell by Curious George's rapturous grin just how much he enjoyed the experience.

And I haven't even mentioned the use of tobacco on page 41 or the prevelence of extremely high-emissions fossil-fueled vehicles on pages 13 and 14.

Bottom line: this book is POISON. Protect your children from it at all costs.