by H. A. Rey
"That's a lovely picture," said Greta. "But it needs FEET. Please let me do them." And she took the pencil and drew a pair of feet just like her own.
"There you are," she said. "That's the way it should be." "But what...." Billy began. Just then Paul the Porcupine happened to come along.
"That's a wonderful picture," said Paul. "But it needs QUILLS. Please let me do them." And he took the pencil and drew lots and lots of quills just like his own.
"There you are," he said. "That's the way it should be." "But what I...." Billy began. Just then Ronny the Rooster happened to come along.
"That's a beautiful picture," said Ronny. "But it needs a COMB. Please let me do it." And he took the pencil and drew a comb just like his own.
"There you are," he said. "That's the way it should be." "But what I wanted to...." Billy began. Just then Oliver the Owl happened to come along.
"That's a great picture," said Oliver. "But it needs WINGS. Please let me do them." And he took the pencil and drew a pair of wings just like his own.
"There you are," he said. "That's the way it should be." "But what I wanted to...." Billy began. Just then Maggie the Mouse happened to come along.
"That's a sweet picture," said Maggie. "But it needs a TAIL. Please let me do it." And she took the pencil and drew a tail just like her own.
"There you are," she said. "That's the way it should be." "But what I wanted to draw...." Billy began.
Just then Eric the Elephant happened to come along. "That's a delightful picture," said Eric. "But it needs a TRUNK. Please let me do it."
And he took the pencil and drew a trunk just like his own. "There you are," he said. "That's the way it should be."
"But what I wanted to draw." Billy began once more—and this time nobody happened to come along — "what I wanted to draw isn't a PUPPYGOOSE or a PORCUPHANT or whatever you call this silly picture. All I wanted to draw was a picture of myself!"
Here Billy began to cry and for a moment nobody said anything. Then everybody started to talk at the same time.
"A picture of myself — that's just what I wanted to do!" said Penny and Greta and Paul and Ronny and Oliver and Eric.
Billy stopped crying. "Why not do it then?" he said.
And that's what they did: Eric drew an elephant and Maggie drew a mouse. Paul drew a porcupine and Greta drew a goose.
Penny drew a puppy and Oliver drew an owl. Ronny drew a rooster—and can you guess what Billy drew?
That's what he drew!
Whiteblack the Penguin Sees the World
MARGRET & H. A. REY
WHITEBLACK THE PENGUIN was worried. He was the Chief Storyteller on Station W-O-N-S. Spelled backwards it read S-N-O-W, the radio station for all Penguinland. And he had run out of stories.
"I guess I'll take a vacation and travel," he said. "Travelers always have lots of stories."
His friends Seal and Polar Bear agreed.
"But you'll need a boat," said Seal. "You can't swim all the time. I'll give you half of an old seal skin. It will make a fine boat."
"And I," said Polar Bear, "I'll give you rope made from the hair of my last winter's fur. Ropes are always useful."
"That's wonderful," said Whiteblack. "Besides, I've always wanted a boat and a rope."
So he began to build the boat, and with all the family helping, it was finished in no time. Whiteblack was ready for his trip.
Everybody waved farewell to him.
"Come back with plenty of stories!" barked Seal.
"And bring us nice presents!" said Polar Bear.
"I promise!" shouted Whiteblack. "Good-bye!"
The boat moved away from the shore, and soon he was alone on the wide blue ocean.
Hours went by and not much happened. Sometimes Whiteblack swam pulling the boat behind him, and sometimes he sat in the boat using his flippers as paddles.
"I thought traveling was more exciting," he said. Feeling bored, he fell asleep.
CRACK! He awoke to a heavy shock. His boat had hit an iceberg! It was sinking fast. "I hate to lose my boat," he said, "but at least this is a story for my radio show. Besides, I've always wanted to be in an accident."
He untied the rope just as the boat went under. He then tied it around his middle and swam on.
After a while Whiteblack saw smoke on the horizon: there was a cruiser steaming straight toward him.
"I'll go on board and look at this ship," he said.
When the cruiser was close enough, he lassoed a gun and climbed on board.
Everything aboard the cruiser was clean and shiny, and Whiteblack was pleased. On deck was one of those famous human beings he had heard so much about!
"I've always wanted to see a man, but I thought he'd look more unusual," Whiteblack said. "Why, he looks just like me! White shirt, dark coat, and he walks on two legs. Only he's got lovely bright buttons on his jacket. I'll go ask him to let me have a few for my Sunday suit."
Just then the officer and some sailors discovered the little penguin and started chasing him. He ran away as fast as he could and hid in the muzzle of a big gun.
"I hope I'm safe here," he thought. "It's a nice cool place for a long nap."
The next morning the sailors started practicing with the gun where Whiteblack was sleeping. BOOM! He went through the air like a thunderbolt, and miles away he dived into the sea.
"This is a real story for my radio show!" he said when he came up. "Besides, I've always wanted to fly."
He saw land in the distance and swam ashore.
"This must be a foreign country." He climbed up the beach. "I suppose it's full of stories for my radio show. Besides, I've always wanted to visit a foreign country."
The place was quite different from Penguinland. There was no snow or ice, but there were bright flowers and fresh green plants everywhere. The air was warm, a little too warm for Whiteblack's taste.
But look at the two big white balls lying there! They couldn't be snowballs ... or could they?
"Perhaps footballs," he thought. "Besides, I've always wanted to play football." He kicked one ball with his foot.
CRICK! The ball broke in two and out came a baby ostrich.
"Thanks for letting me out of the egg," he squeaked. "Won't you please get my brother out, too?"
So Whiteblack hit the second egg and another baby ostrich appeared.
"I've always wanted to see baby ostriches come out of their eggs," Whiteblack said. "It's a very rare experience and a fine story for my radio show."
That moment Father and Mother Ostrich arrived. "What a pleasant surprise," they said. "Won't you accept a little present?" Mother Ostrich gave him a lovely mirror, and Father Ostrich produced a roller skate.
"Thanks," said Whiteblack. "Now I must go because I'm on a trip, collecting stories for my radio show."
"Wait," said Father Ostrich. "The desert is hard to travel for somebody with such short legs—pardon me for saying so. I'll give you a letter of introduction to my friend the camel. He'll let you ride on his back."
Whiteblack took the letter and walked into the desert. It was like the beach in Penguinland, only warmer. Soon he met the camel.
The camel was very glad to have company, for the desert is such a lonely place. "I provide the ferry service across the desert," the camel said, "and I charge a small fee, but because of that letter I shall carry you for free."
The camel knelt down and Whiteblack climbed on its back. "Another good story for my radio show," he said. "Besides, I've always wanted to ride on a camel."
At first Whiteblack liked the ride, but after a while he had a funny feeling in his stomach.
With every step the camel's back moved up and down, up and down, and he felt he was going to be seasick. "This would not make a good story for my radio show," he thought, "and besides, I never wanted to be seasick. Penguins are not supposed to be seasick, ever!"
Finally he could not stand it anymore. He asked the camel to please let him off.
Now he ha
d to walk through the hot desert again, for hours and hours.
"I wish I were home," he sighed. "Besides, I've never wanted to be lost in a desert. I must get out of here somehow." Suddenly he had an idea. He picked up a stick and with his rope he tied it to the roller skate. It made a perfect scooter! It even had a rearview mirror.
He rolled along smoothly all the way to the end of the desert.
"Now I've got enough stories for my radio show," he decided. "I want to go home. If I only knew which way to go. Why, there's a plane over there. Maybe there's somebody who can tell me how to get back to Penguinland."
And there was! An explorer was quite surprised to see the little penguin. "I'm leaving tomorrow," he said, "and I can give you a lift."
The explorer made a little carrier for Whiteblack. And because no animals were allowed inside the plane, the carrier was fastened on top.
"I've always wanted to ride on top of an airplane," said Whiteblack. "Now I'm on my way home!"
The plane took off and flew over towns and rivers and fields and forests and finally it reached the ocean.
"It's getting cooler," thought Whiteblack. "I can feel we are coming closer to Penguinland. I must try to have a look. Besides, I've always wanted to have a look at Penguinland from the air."
He managed to open the door of his carrier and walked out to have a better view.
He bent over and SWOOSH! Down he went, headfirst, and SPLASH! he plumped into the sea.
When he recovered from his fall he looked around. He was curious. There were fish right and left and everywhere; he had never seen so many fish in his life.
Suddenly he and all the fish were lifted out of the water. He had fallen into a fishing net, and the net was being pulled in. Together with everybody else, Whiteblack was dumped into the hold of a fishing boat.
"Not a bad place," he said to himself. "Lots of fish, lots of ice, just the right temperature. Now I can make up for all the meals I've missed during my trip."
So he had ten breakfasts, ten lunches, ten dinners, and ten suppers, all in one, and every course was fish. He was just ready for a nap when he heard a fisherman upstairs say, "Over there lies Penguinland!"
Penguinland! He was almost home and yet he had no present for his friends. "I must bring something," he said. "What can I do?" And then a wonderful idea came to him.
At night when everybody was asleep he climbed on deck. He took one of the big nets that were hung up to dry and jumped into the sea.
His idea worked! As he swam toward Penguinland, dragging the net behind him, fish were caught in it. Soon the net became quite heavy. "I don't mind," he thought. "I'm on my way home, with stories to tell and a marvelous present!"
The morning came and he could see the shores of Penguinland far away, but the net was so heavy now that he hardly made any headway. "I must get home with my present," he panted. "I MUST!"
But his strength was almost gone. He would have to let the net go and come home empty-handed. He just had to give up! Tears were coming to his eyes...
"Whiteblack! Hello, Whiteblack!" shouted a happy voice. It was Seal, his good friend Seal, who came rushing through the waves to help him. "I've been looking out for you every day. I'm so glad you are back! What a marvelous present you brought!" And he took the heavy load from Whiteblack.
HURRAH! There was a big crowd on the beach to welcome the famous traveler. That same day they had an enormous party with mountains of fish for everybody. Whiteblack had a special radio show on Station W-O-N-S, and he had to tell all his stories over and over again.
And out of snow his friends built a big monument and wrote on it: WHITEBLACK, THE HERO OF PENGUINLAND.
And since in Penguinland the snow never melts, the monument is still there. You can go yourself and see it.
"Not all our children's books are about George,
but they are all about animals. We both loved them."
—MARGRET REY
A Few Notes about Curious George and Friends
Curious George
Curious George and his creators had quite a journey getting to America. In 1940, before dawn on a rainy day in June, Hans and Margret left Paris just hours before the Nazis invaded the city. On bicycles that Hans had pieced together, they headed to the French-Spanish border, carrying very little with them besides a few treasured manuscripts and artwork, including Curious George. They went by train to Lisbon, then on to Rio de Janeiro, arriving finally in New York City in October of the same year, where they took a small apartment in Greenwich Village and rolled up their sleeves. "Before the week was over, we had found a home for Curious George at Houghton Mifflin," Margret later wrote. Their editor at Houghton Mifflin, Grace Hogarth, was a familiar face, as she had published their books in England. In 1941, Curious George was published and slowly he has become known around the world as "Georges," "Zozo," "Bingo," "Nicke," "Peter Pedal," "Coco," and "Piete," among other names.
Cecily G. and the 9 Monkeys
Curious George makes his first appearance in this book about eight monkey children, their mother, and a playful giraffe. Cecily G. and the 9 Monkeys came about when an editor at the French publishing company Gallimard saw Mr. Rey's whimsical drawings of a giraffe in a French periodical and encouraged him to try his hand at a children's story. In 1939, the book was first published in France as Rafi et les 9 Singes. An English-language edition was published later that year in England as Raffy and the 9 Monkeys. In the American edition, published in 1942, Raffy's name became Cecily G. (G. for Giraffe), and the mischievous little monkey who was first known as Fifi became Curious George. You will notice in this first book that George talks, although he doesn't speak in future books. Here, he also has a mother: Mother Pamplemoose. And her littlest monkey is called Jinny, a name that the Reys later gave to one of their pet cocker spaniels.
Elizabite
First published in 1942 by Harper & Row and edited by the legendary Ursula Nordstrom, this early title was dedicated simply by Hans: "To Peggy." The flap copy on the original jacket provides a note about
Hans's inspiration: "When asked about the origin of Elizabite, Mr. Rey (who has spent many years in Brazil) told of an evening in Rio when he was dining with friends, among them a botanist who entertained the party with strange tales about carnivorous plants. Ever since, Mr. Rey has looked with suspicion at flower arrangements on dinner tables, and as the years went by he often tried to imagine what a carnivorous plant might develop into, under proper care. His thoughts on the subject crystallized into the colorful and energetic shape of Elizabite in the present book."
Pretzel
Pretzel, originally published in 1944, was the first book that credits Margret Rey as author. In answering how they worked together and who did what, Margret stated, "Basically H.A. illustrated and Margret wrote. But that is not the whole story. H.A. also had ideas, which Margret then turned into a story. And Margret sometimes wrote her own books, such as Pretzel and Spotty, and H.A. did the illustrations, at times changing the story a little to fit his pictures." Though they wrote the books in partnership, Margret had been resigned for many years to accepting the gender-free, somewhat mysterious "H.A." to stand as the author credit on the Curious George books. It was on her insistence that her name appeared, finally, on Curious George Flies a Kite in 1958.
Margret and Hans's editor at Harper, Ursula Nordstrom, challenged the team to create a small book, an inventive way to conserve paper during the war: hence the small format of the original book as well as the single piece of art that wraps around the jacket. A sequel to Pretzel, called Pretzel and the Puppies, was presented as a series of stories in a format similar to that of a comic strip. Many of these stories were published in Good Housekeeping magazine in the late 1940s. Pretzel inspired a balloon that appeared in a Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, and, along with Spotty, Katy No-Pocket, and George, he has also made an appearance as a plush toy.
Katy No-Pocket
Descended from a long line of writers, Emmy Payne wrote an
d cowrote several books. She is best known to young readers, however, for her story about a mother kangaroo who cleverly finds a solution to the problem of not having a pocket. H. A. Rey enriched the story with illustrations in watercolors that are similar to those used in his books about Curious George. Young readers may notice that the street scene in Katy No-Pocket looks like one in which Curious George could have felt right at home—complete with smiling cars and trucks and a woman out for a stroll with her black cocker spaniel.
Spotty
Spotty, first published in 1945, might have been partly inspired by Margret's childhood fondness for a set of toy bunnies covered with real fur. But it was also inspired by race relations in the country in the 1940s and her and Hans's friendship with the African American educator and author Jesse Jackson, whom they met at the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference. Margret was also a mentor and editor to Jackson, whose works include Call Me Charley and a biography of Mahalia Jackson. The Reys' belief that people can be different and still live together in harmony is a theme that recurs in a small wordless book for adults called Zebrology, published by Chatto & Windus in London, which illustrates Hans's fantastical interpretation of the evolution of the zebra from both white and black horses.