July 6, 2010

THE COMPLETE ADVENTURES OF CURIOUS GEORGE by Margaret and H. A. Rey
1994
Weight: 3.3 lbs
Method of Disposal: Shipping to Colorado for the niece



On July 6, 2010 at 11:28 pm a chunky baby, weighing 9 lbs 9 oz (3Xthe amount of the Curious George book) was born into the world. This little baby is named Bella, and she was a long time coming. I am shipping her this book as a “welcome” gift after owning it since it was printed in 1994.

Curious George has always reminded everyone in my immediate family of my brother because of an episode from his childhood where he gave all of his toys, except for Curious, away to some other children he did not know. The story goes that he noticed they did not have as much as him and so he decided to even the playing field. This happened while he was living in Saudi Arabia. He has never been able to get away from that moment. Throughout the years he has received random Curious George items that I am sure he did not want or need. Here we go again! Only this time it is for little Bella who will appreciate it.

Curious George, of course, is problematic even as it is fun--so Bella and I will need to have a conversation about it when she gets older. We need to talk about the captured monkey and what he is to the man in the yellow hat but, until then; I still think there is fun and value in this collection. AND, the publication of Curious George is quite the achievement in and of itself. The authors had to flee Paris in 1940 and come to the United States with their manuscript in hand. Since then, it has been translated into numerous languages and read all over the world.

I still get a similar feeling now to that I had as a child when I open this book and see all the familiar images. I never wanted to let it go because I still want to eat the hundreds of perfectly round doughnuts. I want to follow the alphabet animals. I want to see the puzzle piece I just swallowed on an x-ray machine.

I have a friend I met when I was 15. She was also my coworker at the time, and she use to read me Curious George when we had downtime at work. By “read” I mean she made up her own words to match the pictures. Why bother with what is actually written down? It was a lot of fun. Yup, this collection and this monkey signify a lot of good times. Welcome to the world Isabella and may you have even better times in your life.