After Raffy and the Nine Monkeys was published, the Reys decided that Curious George deserved a book of his own, so they began work on a manuscript that featured the lovable and exceedingly curious little monkey. Hitler and his Nazi party were tearing through Europe, and they were poised to take control of Paris.
Knowing that they must escape before the Nazis took power, Hans cobbled together two bicycles out of spare parts. Early in the morning of June 14, , the Reys set off on their bicycles. They brought very little with them on their predawn flight — only warm coats, a bit of food, and five manuscripts, one of which was Curious George. The Nazis entered Paris just hours later, but the Reys were already on their way out. They rode their makeshift bicycles for four long days until reaching the French-Spanish border, where they sold them for train fare to Lisbon.
Curious George was published by Houghton Mifflin in , and for sixty years these books have been capturing the hearts and minds of readers throughout the world. All the Curious George books, including the seven original stories by Margret and Hans, have sold more than twenty-five million copies. Much consideration is given to programs that benefit animals, through preservation as well as the prevention of cruelty to animals.
All month, he'll be here to put a stop to all the monkey business. Then he picks George up, stuffs him in a bag, and takes him out of Africa on a boat. The Reys, who actually escaped Nazi-occupied Paris on homemade bikes in , carrying with them the first Curious George manuscript, always referred to George as a monkey. His creation was almost certainly inspired by the two marmoset monkeys that the Reys themselves kept as pets when they lived in Brazil in the s. But I'm going to quibble with George's own creators here.
I don't think he's a curious little monkey. In fact, I don't think he's a monkey at all. When they decided to travel back to Europe for a belated honeymoon, the marmoset monkeys came with them. It was a long, rainy crossing; Margret knit the marmosets sweaters to keep them warm; still, the monkeys died. That first Curious George story was published in It reads as notably longer than most books pitched to the same age group these days.
He then escapes prison by walking on electrical wires, with the balance of a circus performer or monkey. After that, George ends up in peril again, when he clutches too many helium balloons at once, but again he escapes his peril. In the nineteen-nineties, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt commissioned and distributed additional early-reader Curious George stories that were not written or illustrated by the Reys. Those stories were short and tended to focus on one simple mishap that was then made right.
The seven original tales by the Reys are more like mini-picaresques. They lost their luggage but still had their prints for a story about a monkey named Fifi.
Their American publisher suggested that they choose a less French name. Margarethe Waldstein became Margret Rey. They had new business cards made, with their more marketable last name, and ran an advertising agency. Only a naughty little monkey. The other constant is the reliably happy ending. A journal entry of H. Margret studied art and photography at the Bauhaus school.
The Finnish writer Tove Jansson also turned to writing for children at nearly the same historical moment. Jansson had been a brilliant political cartoonist; the winter the Soviet Union invaded Finland, she began writing and illustrating a gentle story about a family of hippo-like woodland creatures, called Moomins, who are escaping a flood.
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