Margret Rey (1906–1996)

I realize that this will make me sound crazy, because on its surface this is a classic picture book about an adorable dachshund. But the whole story is about how Pretzel falls in love with a lady dog who dislikes him and then he proceeds to give her presents, beg for her affection, and stalk her. There is literally a page that says something about how he had been following and watching her all the time. CREEPY. So he rescues her and she decides he's not so bad and they get married. UGH. Awful.

I feel torn in my review for this book. As a child, I read several of these books, and enjoyed them because as so many children were, I was blissfully unaware of poaching/kidnapping - which is basically what the man in the yellow hat does to George.

There is nothing mentioned of the danger of owning a chimpanzee (was the thing with Travis the chimp really over a decade ago now? Daaaaamn) but then this book was published in the 1940s, which was... really a different time in more ways than show more one.

So I will refrain from giving this book 1 star out of fairness, but I also would not recommend this as a children's book nowadays, at least not without a serious talk with the child about poaching, the exotic animal trade, et. al. show less

Curious George goes to the circus, is curious, and becomes the surprise star of the show. (Once again, in addition to being a colonialist animal thief, the man in the yellow hat is an incompetent caretaker; who tells a monkey "wait here" at a circus?)

Curious George is, of course, a mischievous little monkey who gets taken from his home in Africa and brought to live in the big city by the man in the yellow hat. Along the way he gets in many misadventures including falling off a big boat, accidentally calling the fire department and causing them trouble, getting put in jail, getting blown away with a handful of balloons, and finally getting put in the zoo.

This is long for a picture book, but the text is simple and would be a good show more introduction to indpendent reading for newer readers. I think the characterization of George is what has made these books so popular - he's sweet, naive, often misunderstands or takes things too literally, etc. I think kids identify with him. The illustrations are bright, old-fashioned, lovely. I'm pretty sure they were originally done with a limited color palette but have been "colorized" in subsequent reprints?

The story itself is kind of disturbing in retrospect: George is basically kidnapped/poached from Africa by the Man in the Yellow Hat, he's nonsensically "jailed" for calling in a false alarm to the fire department, and finally he ends up in the zoo - you know, trapped in a cage rather than running around free in Africa. This is very different from the Curious George most kids are probably used to seeing via the movies and the PBS show. show less