Customer Reviews

The Original Curious George

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

 

 

Despite the colonialist/imperialist undercurrents, which was acceptable for the time the book was published, this is a marvelous tale of mischief, hard-knocks and learning. This book allows children to see that it is acceptable to make mistakes and still be deserving of love and understanding. To the reviewer in Ann Arbor, MI: it is fabulous that you are passionate about something, to hate is almost to love.

THIS EDITION:
I compared the original watercolors in this special edition with the 'pre-separated' illustrations used in the original publication of Curious George. I am an artist and I have to say I actually like the second (pre-separated) illustrations better. They are more crisp, clean and consistent. The watercolors seem kind of sloppy by comparison, and more like sketches than like finished illustrations. Great to have if you are a Curious George collector though.

CURIOUS GEORGE, THE BOOK:
I was born in '71 and loved all the original Curious George books. I don't remember how old I was when we started reading them, but I remember them well. I am extremely sensitive and I love animals, but the stories didn't have any negative effect on me. Some reviewers feel they aren't good for today's kids, or have said their children reacted badly to them.

Re: pipe smoking - I certainly never noticed the smoking in the book or thought that because people in it (or any other book/movie) were doing it I should too. I 'smoked' candy cigarettes as a kid in the '70s, yet I have never had a desire to smoke. I also have never wanted to fly off a boat, be in a movie, or a hundred other things George does. And the main message of all the books is one of the main things children must learn: try to control your impulses because they can lead to trouble. Don't act without thinking. Don't try to fly off a boat because you will almost drown like George did! If you eat a puzzle piece you might have to go to the hospital like George did! Etc. A secondary but equally important message is that even when you do get into 'mischief' people will still love you (and will not abandon you, as the man in the yellow hat does in the 2006 animated movie Curious George).

Re: George's capture - If you don't like George's capture but let your kids go to the zoo, that's hypocritical. I hope you are instead telling them how wrong the zoo is because they do the same thing to animals that happened to George. (Google "Animal Capture Equipment.") And to those who equate the prison and the zoo, just look at the two illustrations: A dark cell with a bit of cheese, vs. a tree in the middle of a sunny open island (not a cage)? I wish all zoos kept all their monkeys this way. Anyway, it's clear from the later stories that George doesn't stay at the zoo for long. He goes to live with the MWTYH. I agree sending George to jail doesn't make any sense; nor does sending him to a human hospital rather than a vet. But, such is the realm of fiction. I always enjoyed reading about how he escaped from the jail. And in fact the Jewish authors fled Europe at the outbreak of WWII.

My 2.5 yr old daughter really likes the book and also the stop-motion animated versions of "Curious George" and "CG Goes to the Hospital" (Curious George (Collector's Edition)) which follow the books very closely. (One change I did notice is that George's pipe smoking is done behind the man's back and makes him sick. Good way to handle that scene.) She is very empathetic also and didn't react badly to anything in either story. Incidentally my family liked that stop-motion video WAY better than the 2006 animated movie.

I wrote this because I was really floored by the content of the negative reviews for this edition and also for The Original Curious George. No wonder we are raising "A Nation of Wimps" as the upcoming generation is now being called and with good reason. Kids are breaking down in record numbers. The overinvolvement and overprotection of helicopter parenting* is backfiring. And it's little things like this that contribute. I don't really agree with those who say "It's just a children's book." Children are very impressionable, it's true. But to what degree are we to control those impressions? Probably more than our grandparents or maybe even parents did, but definitely less than this generation of parents is doing. There is a balance without which we're crippling our kids.

*Some books on helicopter parenting:
Free-Range Kids, How to Raise Safe, Self-Reliant Children (Without Going Nuts with Worry)
A Nation of Wimps: The High Cost of Invasive Parenting
Under Pressure: Rescuing Our Children from the Culture of Hyper-Parenting
The Price of Privilege: How Parental Pressure and Material Advantage Are Creating a Generation of Disconnected and Unhappy Kids
Even June Cleaver Would Forget the Juice Box: Cut Yourself Some Slack (and Still Raise Great Kids) in the Age of Extreme Parenting
The Blessing Of A Skinned Knee: Using Jewish Teachings to Raise Self-Reliant Children
Raising America: Experts, Parents, and a Century of Advice About Children

Some articles:
TIME: Helicopter Parents-The Backlash Against Overparenting
Psychology Today: A Nation of Wimps
Newsweek: The Good Enough Mother
O, the Oprah Magazine: The New Improved Self-Esteem
The Salon: Parents on the verge of a nervous breakdown
NY Times: Dear Parents-Please Relax, It's Just Camp
Io Triumphe!: Confessions of a "Helicopter Parent"
HomeWord.com: Confessions of a Recovering Helicopter Parent

An original Curious George book is a special find and this one is in pristine condition, minus the notations from the New York Public Library from which it was deleted. It is authentically original, which is obvious from the feel of the paper and the type of ink used. I bought it for an inexpensive gift, but want to keep it for myself!

Wow! We've come a long way in 70 years havn't we? As someone who loved Curious George as a kid, I found his predicaments in this volume distressing. An interesting time piece, but I'de stick to the later books for bedtime story.

When the original Curious George appeared in 1941, life was different. At least, children's literature certainly was. Dr. Seuss had published his first book only four years prior. Maybe the conventional wisdom was that children were lucky to get *any* books, so why worry about the messages they conveyed. Or perhaps society has evolved in the past two generations to the point where, once you look past the sentimental attachment the silly monkey engenders and read the actual words, a book like Curious George just seems wrong.

Imperialism and neglect (if not outright abuse) are two of the main themes explored in H.A. Rey's classic. The first three lines set the table for the atrocities to come:

"This is George.
He lived in Africa.
He was very happy."

Note the past tense ("lived" & "was"). Soon George is spotted by the Man with the Yellow Hat, obviously on a mission to round up wildlife for the zoo back in civilization. "What a nice little monkey," he thought, "I would like to take him home with me."

Life was simpler then, no? People of power and means--say, Northern Europeans--could just take what they wanted. In this case, the man uses his famous yellow hat to trap George, and "popped him into a bag."

Cutting to the last third of the book (and skipping past George falling overboard during the ocean voyage home), we see that George's introduction to life outside the jungle is anything but compassionate. Smoking a pipe (!) before bed, George soon finds himself thrown in prison after he plays with the telephone (and mistakenly calls the Fire Department): "We will have to shut you up where you can't do any more harm." Of course, if George had not been stolen from the jungle, none of this would have happened. In any case, and after managing to escape prison, George is rewarded with life inside another: the zoo.

What lessons have we learned? If you see a Man in a Big Yellow Hat with a Big Gun, RUN!

(NOTE: I learned that in the 2006 animated film remake, the story of George's capture from Africa was softened. Instead, he simply follows the man onto the ship to go back the city!)


Rating:

To the extent that the Curious George "brand" attracts children to reading, there is some value. Curiosity and a willingness to try new things are positive traits, after all. And it is amusing for parents to look back at a book from our own childhood. But I would not want to have to explain away the many troubling images and issues to a young child now.