by H. A. Rey
Curious George and Friends
Margret and H. A. Rey
* * *
With an introduction by Margaret Bloy Graham
* * *
Curious George and Friends
Favorite Stories
by Margret & H. A. Rey
Houghton Mifflin Company Boston 2003
* * *
With appreciation to Lay Lee Ong,
Emily West, and Norman West
All rights reserved. For information about permission to reproduce selections from this book, write to
Permissions, Houghton Mifflin Company, 215 Park Avenue South, New York, New York 10003.
www.houghtonmifflinbooks.com
Curious George
Copyright © 1941 and © renewed 1969 by Margret E. Rey. Copyright assigned to Houghton Mifflin Company in 1993
Cecily G. and the 9 Monkeys
Copyright © 1942 by H. A. Rey. Copyright © renewed 1969 by H. A. Rey
Elizabite: Adventures of a Carnivorous Plant
Copyright © 1942 by H. A. Rey. Copyright © renewed 1969 by H. A. Rey
Pretzel
Copyright © 1944 by H. A. Rey. Copyright © renewed 1972 by Margret Rey
Katy No-Pocket
Copyright © 1944 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Copyright © renewed 1972 by Emmy Govan West
Spotty
Copyright © 1945 by H. A. Rey. Copyright © renewed 1973 by Margret Rey
Billy's Picture
Copyright © 1948 by Margret and H. A. Rey. Copyright © renewed 1976 by Margret and H. A. Rey
Whiteblack the Penguin Sees the World
Copyright © 2000 by Lay Lee Ong
Introduction copyright © 2003 by Margaret Graham Holmes
Illustrations in introduction from: Curious George Rides a Bike; the Rey estate, provided by the de Grummond Children's
Literature Collection, the University of Southern Mississippi, Hattiesburg; and Curious George Gets a Medal.
ISBN 0-618-22610-9
Manufactured in the United States of America
DOW 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
* * *
Contents
Introduction by Margaret Bloy Graham [>]
Curious George [>]
Cecily G. and the 9 Monkeys [>]
Elizabite [>]
Pretzel [>]
Katy No-Pocket written by Emmy Payne [>]
Spotty [>]
Billy's Picture [>]
Whiteblack the Penguin Sees the World [>]
A Few Notes about Curious George and Friends [>]
* * *
Memories of the Reys
By lucky chance Hans Rey's niece was in New York City when I first arrived in May 1943. A mutual friend had asked her to look me up. I had just graduated from the University of Toronto in art history and had a student visa to attend summer classes at the Art Students League. I hoped to stay on in New York and illustrate children's books. So when Lottie said she would introduce me to her aunt and uncle, Margret and Hans Rey, who were in that field, I was delighted.
Although I had never heard of the Reys, I soon discovered that they were well known. They had come from Germany via France and Brazil in 1940 and already had had several books published in the United States, as well as in France and England.
The Reys lived in Greenwich Village, as I did, and life there was casual and fun. Washington Square, where they lived, was a great meeting place, and the Reys knew lots of people—friends and authors and artists from all over. Margret was the more gregarious; Hans was quieter, with a smile for everyone. Most of the people they knew had dogs and walked them every evening in the square. Margret and Hans had a black cocker spaniel, Charkie, the first of a succession of spaniels. When Charkie got old and his whiskers turned white, people would say, "Poor old dog." Margret soon stopped such remarks by dyeing his whiskers black. The Reys' dogs were an important part of their life, and Hans sometimes put Margret and Charkie in his illustrations, as in The Park Book and Curious George Rides a Bike.
I had no experience in book illustration, and no samples or portfolio. When I asked the Reys for advice, Hans, who was always kind and helpful, encouraged me to make some samples. This was fortunate, because one day in 1948 Margret called and said that Ursula Nordstrom at Harper, one of the best children's book editors in the business, had asked if she knew any new artists for a new book, and Margret recommended me. So I began my career with Harper.
The Reys had a charming, light, and airy third-floor studio apartment overlooking the trees in Washington Square. Whenever I visited them
I would see books being created: sketches, pieces of type, and dummies spread all over. Generally the books began with one of Hans's great pictorial ideas, such as the soap powder episode in Curious George Gets a Medal.
Hans's drawings have a wonderful vitality, a feeling of life and motion and fun. When the Boston Public Library had a big exhibit of the Reys' work in 2000, I was thrilled to see a very early drawing, done when Hans was eight, of people riding in a park in Hamburg. The horses move and prance, and one realizes how obvious his talent was from the beginning.
Margret was a gifted idea person, writer, and editor; she was very like Curious George, mischievous and inquisitive. Hans and Margret were a perfect picture-book team. Together they constructed the story amid lots of arguments and changes. Sometimes Margret would quickly take a sketch from Hans, cut it up, and put it together in a more dramatic way. Margret could be very critical, as all who met her soon found out. Both Reys were meticulous craftsmen: each page was carefully designed and every detail thoroughly worked out. Hans did four-color separations of the artwork: each color had to be interpreted in black and gray on a separate sheet of paper, a difficult and demanding task.
In 1963 Margret and Hans moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts, and spent summers in Waterville Valley, New Hampshire. Living close to Harvard Square, the Reys lived very much as they had in New York. Cambridge in the 1960s was similar to the Village in the 1940s and '50s. There were get-togethers with friends and relatives, dog walking, socializing in the street, visits to bookshops and art galleries, concerts and parties. The Reys always gave a New Year's Eve party with champagne and beautiful hors d'oeuvres lovingly made by Hans. In Cambridge they had a large house and a small garden; in Waterville Valley, a small house and a large garden. Margret was an avid and enthusiastic gardener; she was always busy and cheerful, singing as she dug and planted. She was also an enthusiastic potter, taking lessons at the Cambridge Center for Adult Education and the Haystack Mountain School of Crafts in Maine.
Hans's passion was astronomy; he wrote two very successful books: The Stars: A New Way to See Them and Find the Constellations, a star book for children. He had clever new ideas and made excellent, easy-to-read star charts. He always had a telescope at hand and loved showing
people the stars. In Cambridge he would set up his telescope in front of the house and invite the neighbors to take a look. He always had a cluster of fascinated people around him. It was the same in Waterville Valley, where the clear night skies delighted him.
When I moved to Cambridge in the summer of 1965, I was working on the first book that I both wrote and illustrated, Be Nice to Spiders, about a spider named Helen. Before the Reys went to Waterville for the summer, I showed the dummy to Margret and asked for her advice. She sent me the following:
Re: Helen: I think you are doing alright. You just have to learn how to put a story together. A story should always have a hero (Helen) whom you can identify with, or let's say, feel with. And it should come to a climax, the climax in your case being that Helen nearly gets killed when they clean up. Maybe it needs a scene, picture, when they clea
n up and nearly get her with the broom. And then an ending, in this case the discovery that Helen is doing good, plus an end picture which should come quickly, not an ending that is drawn out too long. Well—that's the way I see it, but I guess I said that all before.
I came to know the Reys much better after I moved to Cambridge. They were a great and lasting influence on my life, and I am eternally grateful to them both.
—MARGARET BLOY GRAHAM
Cambridge, Massachusetts
July 2002
Curious George
by
H. A. Rey
This is George.
He lived in Africa.
He was a good little monkey
and always very curious.
One day George saw a man.
He had on a large yellow straw hat.
The man saw George too.
"What a nice little monkey," he thought.
"I would like to take him home with me."
He put his hat on the ground
and, of course, George was curious.
He came down from the tree
to look at the large yellow hat.
The hat had been on the man's head.
George thought it would be nice
to have it on his own head.
He picked it up and put it on.
The hat covered George's head.
He couldn't see.
The man picked him up quickly
and popped him into a bag.
George was caught.
The man with the big yellow hat
put George into a little boat,
and a sailor rowed them both
across the water to a big ship.
George was sad, but he was still
a little curious.
On the big ship, things began to happen.
The man took off the bag.
George sat on a little stool and the man said, "George, I am going to take you to a big Zoo
in a big city. You will like it there.
Now run along and play, but don't get into trouble."
George promised to be good.
But it is easy for little monkeys to forget.
On the deck he found some sea gulls.
He wondered how they could fly.
He was very curious.
Finally he HAD to try.
It looked easy. But—
oh, what happened!
First this—
and then this!
"WHERE IS GEORGE?"
The sailors looked and looked.
At last they saw him struggling in the water, and almost all tired out.
"Man overboard!" the sailors cried as they threw him a lifebelt.
George caught it and held on.
At last he was safe on board.
After that George was more careful to be a good monkey, until, at last, the long trip was over.
George said good-bye to the kind sailors, and he and the man with the yellow hat walked off the ship on to the shore and on into the city to the man's house.
After a good meal and a good pipe George felt very tired.
He crawled into bed and fell asleep at once.
The next morning
the man telephoned the Zoo.
George watched him.
He was fascinated.
Then the man went away.
George was curious.
He wanted to telephone, too.
One, two, three, four, five, six, seven.
What fun!
DING-A-LING-A-LING!
GEORGE HAD TELEPHONED
THE FIRE STATION!
The firemen rushed to the telephone.
"Hello! Hello!" they said.
But there was no answer.
Then they looked for the signal on the big map that showed where the telephone call had come from.
They didn't know it was GEORGE.
They thought it was a real fire.
HURRY! HURRY! HURRY!
The firemen jumped on to the fire engines
and on to the hook-and-ladders.
Ding-dong-ding-dong.
Everyone out of the way!
Hurry! Hurry! Hurry!
The firemen rushed into the house.
They opened the door.
NO FIRE!
ONLY a naughty little monkey.
"Oh, catch him, catch him," they cried.
George tried to run away.
He almost did, but he got caught in the telephone wire, and—
a thin fireman caught one arm and a fat fireman caught the other.
"You fooled the fire department,"
they said. "We will have to shut you up where you can't do any more harm."
They took him away
and shut him in a prison.
George wanted to get out.
He climbed up to the window to try the bars.
Just then the watchman came in.
He got on the wooden bed to catch George.
But he was too big and heavy.
The bed tipped up, the watchman fell over, and, quick as lightning,
George ran out through the open door.
He hurried through the building and out on to the roof. And then he was lucky to be a monkey: out he walked on to the telephone wires.
Quickly and quietly over the guard's head, George walked away.
He was free!
Down in the street outside the prison wall, stood a balloon man.
A little girl bought a balloon for her brother.
George watched.
He was curious again.
He felt he MUST have a bright red balloon.
He reached over and tried to help himself, but—
instead of one balloon, the whole bunch broke loose.
In an instant the wind whisked them all away and, with them, went George, holding tight with both hands.
Up, up he sailed, higher and higher.
The houses looked like toy houses and the people like dolls.
George was frightened.
He held on very tight.
At first the wind blew in great gusts.
Then it quieted.
Finally it stopped blowing altogether.
George was very tired.
Down, down he went—bump,
on to the top of a traffic light.
Everyone was surprised.
The traffic got all mixed up.
George didn't know what to do,
and then he heard someone call, "GEORGE!"
He looked down and saw his friend,
the man with the big yellow hat!
George was very happy.
The man was happy too.
George slid down the post and the man with the big yellow hat put him under his arm.
Then he paid the balloon man for all the balloons.
And then George and the man climbed into the car and at last, away they went
to the ZOO!
What a nice place
for George to live!
Cecily G. and the 9 monkeys
By
H. A. REY
Here are the names of the nine monkeys in this book:
Mother Pamplemoose and Baby Jinny
Curious George who was clever, too
James who was good
Johnny who was brave
Arthur who was kind
David who was strong
and Punch and Judy, the twins
This is Cecily G. Her whole name is Cecily Giraffe, but she is called Cecily G. or just plain Cecily for short.
One day she was very sad because all her family and all her friends had been taken away to a zoo. Cecily G. was all alone. She began to cry because she wanted someone to play with.
Now, in another place lived a mother monkey called Mother Pamplemoose and eight little monkeys. They were sad, too, because some woodcutters had cut down all the trees in their forest, and monkeys have to have trees to live in. One of the little monkeys was cal
led Curious George. He was a clever monkey. He said, "We must pack up at once and go on a journey to find a new home."
So they did. They walked and they walked and they walked until they came to the bank of a deep river. They couldn't get across and there wasn't any way around. They didn't know what to do.
Suddenly Jinny, the baby monkey, pointed across to the other bank.
There stood Cecily Giraffe! When she saw the monkeys, she stopped crying. "Do you want to get across?" she said.
"Yes, yes!" they cried.
"Step back then," called Cecily G.
Yoop! With one big jump Cecily's front feet landed on the monkeys' side of the bank. And then she stood still.
Curious George was the first to see that Cecily had made herself into a bridge. He ran across. Then came Johnny, who was a brave monkey. Then all the others, one by one.
"Thank you, dear Giraffe," shouted George, "and please put your head down a little so that we can talk to you without shouting. That's better! What is your name and why are you sad?"
"My name is Cecily Giraffe, and I am unhappy because I haven't anyone to play with. Why are you sad?"
"We are sad," said George, "because we haven't anywhere to live."
"Then why don't you stay with me for a while?" said Cecily. "My house is empty now."
