by H. A. Rey
to be a good monkey, until, at last,
the long trip was over.
George said good-bye to the kind sailors,
and he and the man with the yellow hat
walked off the ship on to the shore
and on into the city to the man's house.
After a good meal
and a good pipe
George felt very tired.
He crawled into bed
and fell asleep at once.
The next morning
the man telephoned the Zoo.
George watched him.
He was fascinated.
Then the man went away.
George was curious.
He wanted to telephone, too.
One, two, three, four, five, six, seven.
What fun!
DING-A-LING-A-LING!
GEORGE HAD TELEPHONED
THE FIRE STATION!
The firemen rushed to the telephone.
"Hello! Hello!" they said.
But there was no answer.
Then they looked for the signal
on the big map that showed
where the telephone call had come from.
They didn't know it was GEORGE.
They thought it was a real fire.
HURRY! HURRY! HURRY!
The firemen jumped on to the fire engines
and on to the hook-and-ladders.
Ding-dong-ding-dong.
Everyone out of the way!
Hurry! Hurry! Hurry!
The firemen rushed into the house.
They opened the door.
NO FIRE!
ONLY a naughty little monkey.
"Oh, catch him, catch him," they cried.
George tried to run away.
He almost did, but he got caught
in the telephone wire, and—
a thin fireman caught one arm
and a fat fireman caught the other.
"You fooled the fire department,"
they said. "We will have to shut you up
where you can't do any more harm."
They took him away
and shut him in a prison.
George wanted to get out.
He climbed up to the window
to try the bars.
Just then the watchman came in.
He got on the wooden bed to catch George.
But he was too big and heavy.
The bed tipped up,
the watchman fell over,
and, quick as lightning,
George ran out through the open door.
He hurried through the building
and out on to the roof. And then
he was lucky to be a monkey:
out he walked on to the telephone wires.
Quickly and quietly over the guard's head,
George walked away.
He was free!
Down in the street
outside the prison wall,
stood a balloon man.
A little girl bought a balloon
for her brother.
George watched.
He was curious again.
He felt he MUST have
a bright red balloon.
He reached over and
tried to help himself, but—
instead of one balloon,
the whole bunch broke loose.
In an instant
the wind whisked them all away
and, with them, went George,
holding tight with both hands.
Up, up he sailed, higher and higher.
The houses looked like toy houses
and the people like dolls.
George was frightened.
He held on very tight.
At first the wind blew in great gusts.
Then it quieted.
Finally it stopped blowing altogether.
George was very tired.
Down, down he went—bump,
on to the top of a traffic light.
Everyone was surprised.
The traffic got all mixed up.
George didn't know what to do,
and then he heard someone call,
"GEORGE!"
He looked down and saw his friend,
the man with the big yellow hat!
George was very happy.
The man was happy too.
George slid down the post
and the man with the big yellow hat
put him under his arm.
Then he paid the balloon man
for all the balloons.
And then George and the man
climbed into the car
and at last, away they went
to the ZOO!
What a nice place
for George to live!
Curious George
takes a Job
This is George. He lived in the Zoo.
He was a good little monkey and always very curious.
He wanted to find out what was going on outside the Zoo.
One day, when the keeper was not paying attention, George got hold of the key for the cage.
When the keeper discovered what had happened, it was too late—George was gone!
WHERE WAS GEORGE?
They looked for him everywhere.
But they could not find him.
George was hiding in the hay of his friend, the elephant. Finally the keepers gave up looking for him.
George found a nice cozy spot to sleep under the elephant's right ear, and the next morning, before the Zoo opened, he got away safely.
Once in the street George felt a little scared. What should he do in the big city? Maybe he could find his friend, the man with the yellow hat, who had brought him over from Africa a long time ago. Only George did not know where he lived.
There was a bus stopping at the corner. George had never ridden on one. Quickly he climbed a lamp post, jumped on top of the bus and off they went.
Now they were right in the center
of the town. There was so much to see
that George did not know where to look first.
If only he could go on riding like this forever!
But after a while George got tired and a little dizzy.
When the bus slowed down to turn into a side street, George jumped off.
There was a restaurant right in front of him. Mmmm—something smelled good! Suddenly George felt very hungry.
The kitchen door stood open and George walked in.
On the table was a big pot. Of course George was curious. He had to find out what was in it...
When the cook came back he had a big surprise. Spaghetti was all over the place and in the middle of it was a little monkey!
George had been eating yards and yards and had wound himself all up in it.
The cook was a kind man and did not scold much. But George had to clean up the kitchen and then do all the dishes. My, what a lot of them there were! The cook was watching George. "You are lucky to have four hands," he said. "You can do things twice as quickly.
"I have a friend who could use a handy little fellow like you to wash windows. If you would like to, I will take you over to him."
So they went down into the subway and took an uptown train to the cook's friend, who was an elevator man in a skyscraper.
"Sure, I can use you!" the elevator man said to George. "I will give you what you need for the job. You can start right away. But remember—you are here for washing windows. Never mind what people inside the house are doing. Don't be curious or you'll get into trouble."
George promised to be good, but little monkeys sometimes forget...
George was ready to start. My, how many windows there were! But George got ahead quickly, since he worked with all four hands. He jumped from window to window just as he had once jumped from tree to tree in the African jungle.
For a while George stuck to his work and did not pay any attention to the people inside. Of course he was curious,
but he remembered his promise.
In one room a little boy was crying because he did not want to eat his spinach. George did not even look but went right on with his work.
In another room a man was taking a nap and snoring. George was sorry it was not his friend, the man with the yellow hat. He listened to the funny noise for a while, then went on working.
But what was going on in here? George stopped working and pressed his nose against the window. Two painters were working inside. George was fascinated. Painting looked like a lot more fun than washing windows!
The painters were getting ready to go out for lunch. The minute they left George climbed inside.
What wonderful paints and brushes they had! George could not resist...
An hour later the painters came back. They opened the door—and stood there with their mouths wide open. The whole room had changed into a jungle with palm trees all over the walls and a giraffe and two leopards and a zebra. And a little monkey was busy painting himself on one of the trees!
Then the painters knew what had happened!
Luckily George was close to a door. He ran out as fast as he could. After him ran the two painters, then the elevator man and then the woman who lived in the place.
FIRE ESCAPE
USE ONLY IN CASE OF EMERGENCY!
"Oh, my lovely room, my lovely room!" cried the woman. "Don't let him get away!"
George headed for the fire escape.
George reached the end of the fire escape.
The others had not caught up with him yet.
Here was his chance. They could not jump!
But George could easily jump down and escape.
In a moment he would be safe!
Poor little George! He had forgotten that the pavement was hard as stone ... not like the soft grass of the jungle.
Too bad! The fall broke his leg and an ambulance came to take George to the hospital.
"He got what he deserved!" said the woman "making my apartment into a jungle, indeed!"
"I told him he would get into trouble," the elevator man added. "He was too curious."
George had to lie in bed with his leg high up in a plaster cast. He was very unhappy.
And it had all started out so nicely! If only he had not been so curious he could have had a lot of fun. Now it was too late...
But next morning George's friend, the man with the big yellow hat, was buying his newspaper. Suddenly he got very excited. "This is George!" he shouted when he saw the
picture on the front page. Quickly he read the whole story and then ran to a telephone booth to ring the hospital.
"I am George's friend," he said to the nurse who answered the telephone. "Please take good care of him so that he will get better quickly. I want to take him to a movie studio and make a picture about his life in the jungle. Don't let him get into any more mischief until I can take him away."
Finally the day came when George could walk again.
"Your friend is going to take you away this morning," said the nurse. "Just wait right here for him and don't touch anything!"
As soon as George was alone he looked around at all the strange hospital things. "I wonder what is in that big blue bottle," he thought.
George was very curious.
It smelled funny!
Suddenly his head began to turn.
Then he felt as if he were flying.
Then rings and stars danced before his eyes,
then everything went dark...
And this is how the man with the yellow hat found George when he came to call for him! They picked him up and shook him but they could not wake him up. He was so fast asleep that finally they had to put him
UNDER THE SHOWER!
How surprised he was when he woke up!
George said goodbye to the nurse and the kind doctor. Then he and the man with the yellow hat got into the car to drive to the movie studio.
In the president's office George had to sign a contract. Now he was a movie actor!
In the studio George was kept so busy all the time that he forgot to be curious. He liked the jungle they made for him and played happily there.
And when the picture was finally finished George invited all his friends to see it: the doctor and the nurse and the ambulance driver and the man from the newsstand and the woman and the elevator man and the two painters and the cook and the reporter and all the keepers of the Zoo.
Now the lights went out and the picture started.
"This is George," the voice began.
"He lived in the jungle.
He was a good little monkey—
he had only one fault: he was too curious."
The End
Curious George
rides a bike
This is George.
He lived with his friend, the man with the yellow hat. He was a good little monkey and always very curious.
This morning George was curious the moment he woke up because he knew it was a special day...
At breakfast George's friend said: "Today we are going to celebrate because just three years ago this day I brought you home with me from the jungle. So tonight I'll take you to the animal show. But first I have a surprise for you."
He took George out to the yard where a big box was standing. George was very curious.
Out of the box came a bicycle. George was delighted; that's what he had always wanted. He knew how to ride a bicycle but he had never had one of his own.
"I must go now," said the man, "but I'll be back in time for the show. Be careful with your new bike and keep close to the house while I am gone!"
George could ride very well. He could even do
all sorts of tricks (monkeys are good at that).
For instance he could ride this way,
with both hands off the handle bar,
and he could ride this way,
like a cowboy on a wild bronco,
and he could also ride backwards.
But after a while George got tired of doing tricks and
went out into the street. The newsboy was just passing by with his bag full of papers. "It's a fine bike you have there," he said to George. "How would you like to help me deliver the papers?"
He handed George the bag and told him to do one side of the street first and then turn back and do the other side.
George was very proud as he rode off with his bag.
He started to deliver the papers on one side of the street as he had been told.
When he came to the last house he saw a little river in the distance. George was curious: he wanted to know what the river was like, so instead of turning back to deliver the rest of the papers he just went on.
There was a lot to see at the river: a man was fishing from the bridge, a duck family was paddling downstream, and two boys were playing with their boats.
George would have liked to stop and look at the boats, but he was afraid the boys might find out that he had not delivered all the papers. So he rode on.
While riding along George kept thinking of boats all the time. It would be such fun to have a boat—but how could he get one? He thought and thought—and then he had an idea.
He got off the bicycle, took a newspaper out of the bag and began to fold it.
First he folded down the corners, like this,
then he folded
both edges up,
brought the
ends together
and flattened
it sidewise.
Then he turned
one corner up,
then the
other one,
again brought
the ends together
and flattened
it sidewise.
Then, gently, he pulled
the ends open—
and there was his BOAT!
Now the moment had come to launch the boat. Would it float? It did!
So George decided to make some more boats. Finally he had used up all the pap
ers and had made so many boats that he could not count them—a whole fleet.
Watching his fleet
sailing down the river
George felt like an admiral.
But watching his fleet he forgot to watch where he was going—
PFFF!
suddenly there was a terrible jolt: the bicycle had hit a rock and George flew off the seat, head first.
Luckily George was not hurt, but the front wheel of the bicycle was all out of shape and the tire was blown out.
George tried to ride the bicycle, but of course it wouldn't go.
So he started carrying it, but it soon got too heavy.
George did not know WHAT to do: his new bike was
spoiled, the newspapers were gone. He wished he had listened to his friend and kept close to the house. Now he just stood there and cried...
Suddenly his face brightened. Why—he had forgotten that he could ride on one wheel! He tried it and it worked.
He had hardly started out again when he saw something
he had never seen before: rolling toward him came an enormous tractor with huge trailers behind it. Looking out of the trailers were all sorts of animals. To George it looked like a Zoo on wheels. The tractor stopped and two
men jumped out. "Well, well," said one of the men, "a little monkey who can ride a bike bronco fashion! We can use you in our animal show tonight.
I am the director of the show and this is Bob.
He can straighten your wheel and fix that flat in no time and then we'll take you along to the place where the show is going to be."