Who’s curious, surrounded by yellow, traveled here from the jungle, lives in both the city and the country, and is everyone’s favorite monkey? Curious George, of course.
But did you know that the Curious George began with a book about a giraffe and journeyed across Europe amid the dangers of World War II?
That’s right. The first Curious George book actually wasn’t a Curious George book at all; in fact, it was titled Cecily G. and the Nine Monkeys. In the book, Cecily Giraffe (aka Cecily G.) is newly alone in the world. Her whole family and all her friends were taken away to a zoo. It’s quite tragic.
So anyway, Cecily lives alone in the jungle now in this giraffe house with long, giraffe-sized beds and she’s like, super depressed because she has no living friends or family anymore.
And then one day, Mother Pamplemoose – a mama monkey – and her eight monkey children meet Cecily G. She helps them cross a chasm on her long neck or something, and after that the monkeys and Cecily G. bond; a couple of them sail on her like she’s a sailboat, which, by the way, was a horrible idea because there’s all this string around her neck for the sail. But anyway, they ski down her neck, they stay with her in her giraffe house . . . basically all of the things. They become a sort of a mishmash of a family. It’s quite chaotic, but hey, what family isn’t?
As it would turn out, one of these child monkeys is the one and only beloved Curious George. Curious George is kind of the main monkey to talk to Cecily G., and he must have been the public’s and/or the authors’ favorite character or something, because then he got his very own series of books, which eventually became the book-film-television-toy franchise it is today.
Something else to note when it comes to Curious George is that he came incredibly close to never being known to the world. Margret and H. A. Rey, the creators of Curious George, lived in Germany as anti-Semitism took hold in Europe as World War II set in. What’s more is that they were Jewish, which meant they needed to get out of there.
The two of them set out to take shelter in Paris. This was post-Cecily G., but Curious George, although written, was not yet published. The Reys were far from being the only people fleeing Germany, and in order to escape had the idea to use bicycles. However, so did a lot of other people. So they ended building their own bicycles and escaping to Paris with the Curious George manuscript.
Contrary to what one may believe, you can actually see Curious George as a sort of externalization of what the Reys experienced fleeing to Paris and, later, America. Like them, George was uprooted from his home in the jungle and then had to adapt to life across the ocean. Plus, did you ever notice that, although he’s a monkey, George doesn’t have a tail? This makes him more human-like, and, consequently, more relatable. In fact, many children’s book authors will write stories related to dark, or at least complicated or difficult, parts of their lives in a way that is suitable for children. Children can relate to the real elements of life being portrayed, and later on as they grow up they can recognize the mature themes in these stories and relate to them further.
And there’s what you didn’t know you wanted to know about Curious George. Let’s be honest: he is your favorite monkey. Mine too.
Comments