The Curious George Complete Adventures

by H. A. Rey

  The small n

  is a nose

  in the face of a man.

  He has a new blue necktie on

  and is nibbling noodles.

  The big O

  is a big OSTRICH,

  and the small o

  is a small ostrich, of course.

  Ostriches eat odd objects.

  One ostrich once had tried to eat a bugle

  that belonged to George.

  The big P

  is a big PENGUIN,

  and the small p is a small penguin.

  These penguins live near the South Pole.

  They use their flappers as paddles.

  George knew penguins from the Zoo.

  PLOP!

  The big Q

  is a QUAIL.

  QUAILS have short tails.

  You must keep QUIET if you want to

  watch QUAILS. They are quite shy.

  The small q is a quarterback.

  A quarterback has to be quick. George was quick. He would qualify for quarterback.

  "And now get your football, George," said the man, "it will do you good to play a little before we go on with your letters."

  George knew how to play the game. He knew how to carry the ball,

  and how to take a three-point stance,

  and how to get ready for the kick-off.

  He was a fine halfback, too,

  and he could make a short pass, or recover a fumble.

  "Good game," said the man, "but time's up now: back to the alphabet!"

  The big R

  is a RABBIT.

  Some RABBITS are white with RED eyes.

  RABBITS love RADISHES.

  George loved RABBITS. He had one as a pet.

  The small r

  is a rooster.

  The rooster crows when the sun rises.

  Two roosters will start a rumpus.

  They really can get rough.

  The big S

  is a big SNAIL,

  and the small s

  is a small snail.

  Snails are slow. They sneak into their shells

  when they are scared of something.

  George thought snails looked silly.

  The big T

  is a TABLE.

  The TABLE is set for TWO. It is TIME for TEA.

  George did not care for TEA,

  but he liked TOAST.

  The small is a tomahawk.

  George had a toy tomahawk.

  It was a tiny one.

  He took it along when he played Indian.

  He also had a tepee—an Indian tent.

  "Now it's time for a snack," said the man. "Run over to the baker, George, and hand him this note. Then come right back with the doughnuts, one dozen of them, and no tricks, please!"

  George was curious. He looked at the note the man had written. One dozen doughnuts ... Maybe he could write something on it too? How about writing TEN instead of ONE? He had just learned the T ... First a T—then an E—then an N...

  "Hmm," said the baker, "ten dozen doughnuts is quite a lot, but that's what the note says. We need an extra-big bag for them."

  "Why, George!" cried the man. Then he saw the note. "Well, that comes from teaching the alphabet to a little monkey. And I told you: no tricks!"

  "You may not eat any doughnuts now, George. Put them back in the bag and let's go on with the letters!"

  The big U

  is a big UMBRELLA

  standing UPRIGHT.

  The umbrella handle is also like a U.

  George knew how to USE an UMBRELLA.

  The small u

  is a small umbrella.

  When it is raining umbrellas are useful

  but you must keep under the umbrella

  unless you want to get wet.

  George thought rain was a nuisance.

  The big V

  For George

  from the man

  with the

  yellow

  hat

  is a big VALENTINE,

  and the small v

  to George

  with

  Love

  is a small valentine.

  George loved valentines.

  He got several valentine cards every year.

  One card came from Nevada.

  The big W and the small w

  are WHISKERS, big ones and small ones.

  A WALRUS has WHISKERS.

  Some men have whiskers

  and cats have whiskers.

  George did not have whiskers

  but he was curious how

  he would look if he did.

  The next letter of the alphabet is X.

  The big X and the small x look alike, only one is big and one is small, just like the big W and the small w, or the V, or the U, or the S, and some of the other letters.

  "BUT," said the man, "there are few words that start with an X and they don't look like an X—

  except one, and that is

  Xmas!"

  Santa stands for Xmas.

  There is only one Santa so we need only one picture.

  George thought Xmas was exciting.

  The big Y

  is a big YAK

  and the small y

  is a small yak: he is still young.

  Yaks live in Tibet. If you haven't seen any yaks yet

  you may find one at the zoo.

  The big Z

  is a big ZEBRA,

  and the small z is a small zebra.

  The zebras are zipping along with zest.

  "And do you know what?" said the man, "Z is the last letter. Now you know all the 26 letters of the alphabet— and NOW you may have the doughnuts."

  THE END

  Curious George

  Goes to the Hospital

  IN COLLABORATION WITH THE CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL MEDICAL CENTER, BOSTON

  This is George.

  He lived with his friend, the man with the yellow hat. He was a good little monkey, but he was always curious.

  Today George was curious about the big box on the man's desk.

  What could be in it? George could not resist. He simply HAD to open it.

  It was full of funny little pieces of all sorts of shapes and all sorts of colors.

  George took one out. It looked like a piece of candy.

  Maybe it WAS candy. Maybe he could eat it. George put the piece in his mouth—and before he knew, he had swallowed it.

  A while later the man with the yellow hat came home. "Why, George," he said, "I see you have already opened the box with the jigsaw puzzle. It was supposed to be a surprise for you. Well, let's go to work on it."

  Finally the puzzle was finished—

  well, almost finished.

  One piece was missing.

  The man looked for it everywhere, but he could not find it. "That's strange," he said, "it's a brand-new puzzle. Well, it cannot be helped. Maybe we'll find it in the morning. Let's go to bed now, George."

  The next morning George did not feel well. He had a tummy-ache and did not want to eat his breakfast.

  The man was worried. He went to the telephone and called Doctor Baker. "I'll be over as soon as I can," said the doctor.

  First Doctor Baker looked down George's throat and felt his tummy. Then he took out his stethoscope and listened. "I'm not sure what's wrong," he said. "You'd better take George to the hospital and have an X-ray taken. I'll call them and let them know you are coming."

  "Don't worry, George," said the man when they were driving to the hospital, "you have been there before, when you broke your leg. Remember how nice the doctors and nurses were?"

  George held his big rubber ball tight as they walked up the hospital steps.

  A nurse took them down a long hallway to a room where she gave George something to drink that looked white and tasted sweet. "It is called barium," the nurse explained. "It helps the doctors find out what is wrong with you, George."

  In the next room stood a big table, and a
doctor was just putting on a heavy apron. Then he

  gave the man one just like it. George was curious: Would he get one too? No, he did not.

  "You get on that table, George," the doctor said. "I am going to take some X-ray pictures of your insides." He pushed a button and there was a funny noise. "There—now you may get up, and we will have the X-rays developed right away."

  "Now let's see ... There is something there that should not be," said the doctor when they were looking at the X-rays.

  "Why, that looks like ... I think that must be the piece that was missing in our jigsaw puzzle yesterday!" said the man. "Well, well, well," said the doctor, "at least we know now what is wrong with our little patient. I'll tell Doctor Baker right away. George will have to stay at the hospital for a few days. They'll put a tube down his throat to get the piece out. It's only a small operation. I'll call a nurse and have her take you to the admitting office."

  Many people were waiting outside the office. George had to wait too.

  "Look, Betsy," the woman next to him said to her little girl, "there is Curious George!" Betsy looked up for a moment, but she did not even smile. Betsy had never been to a hospital before. She was scared.

  Finally it was George's turn.

  A pretty young nurse took him to the next room—my, how many rooms and how many nurses there were! One nurse wrote down a lot of things about George: his name and his address and what was wrong with him. Another nurse put a bracelet around his wrist. "It has your name on it, George," she said, "so that everybody knows who you are."

  Then the pretty young nurse came back. "My name is Carol," she said. "I am going to take you to your room now—we call it the children's ward—and put you to bed. There will be lots of children to keep you company."

  And so it was. There were a lot of children in the room. Some were up and around; others were in their beds, with a doctor or a nurse looking after them.

  Dave was having a blood transfusion. Steve had his leg bandaged and was sitting in a go-cart. Betsy was in bed looking sad. George got the bed next to Betsy.

  George was glad when he was in his bed at last. His tummy was hurting again.

  The man sat with him for a while. "Now I have to leave you, George," he finally said. "I'll be back first thing in the morning before they take you to the operating room. Nurse Carol will tuck you in when it's time to sleep."

  Then he left. George just sat there and cried.

  As he had promised, the man was back early next morning. The nurses were keeping George very busy. One nurse was taking his temperature; one was taking his blood pressure; one was giving him a pill ("To make you sleepy, George," she said), and one was getting ready to give him a shot.

  "It's going to hurt, George," she said, "but only for a moment."

  She took his arm, and George let out a scream.

  "But the needle hasn't touched you yet," said the nurse, laughing. "There—now it's done. That wasn't so bad, was it?" No, it really was not. And anyway, it was over now.

  By the time the attendant came with the stretcher to wheel him to the operating room, George was getting sleepy. He tried hard to stay awake. He was curious to see what would happen next.

  He could see a big table with bright lamps over it and doctors and nurses all around. They had caps on their heads and masks over their faces; only their eyes were showing.

  One of the doctors winked at George and patted his head. It was Doctor Baker, who had been to the house when it all had started. He looked funny with his mask on ... And then George was fast asleep.

  When George woke up he did not know what had happened. He did not even know where he was. Then he saw Nurse Carol. "It's all done, George," she said. "They got the piece out. In a day or two you will be running around again."

  The man had brought him a picture book. But George felt sick and dizzy. His throat was hurting, too. He was not even curious about the new book. He closed his eyes again. "We'll let him sleep," said Nurse Carol. "The more he sleeps, the better."

  The next morning George felt better. He even ate a dish of ice cream. Dr. Baker came to see him, and the man, of course, came too.

  Betsy was watching him from time to time. She seemed a little less sad, but she still did not smile.

  Steve wheeled his go-cart over to George's bed. "Tomorrow I can get up and try to walk," he said. "Boy, I can hardly wait."

  "I'll take you to the playroom now, George," Nurse Carol said the next morning, "and in the afternoon your friend will come and take you home."

  The playroom was full of children. A lady was showing Betsy how to use finger paint. There were all sorts of things to play with, even a puppet theater—and that was just the thing for George. He had four hands so could handle four puppets at the same time.

  George gave

  a real puppet show,

  with a dragon

  and a clown

  and a bear

  and a policeman.

  The children laughed

  and shouted,

  and even Betsy

  for the

  first time

  smiled a little.

  There was a TV set in the playroom and also a record player. George was curious: If he climbed on the record player and turned the switch,

  would it go round

  and round like a

  real merry-go-round?

  It did!

  It started slowly, then it went faster and faster, and whoopee! George had lost his balance and was sailing through the air...

  Luckily George landed on a soft cushion. The children cheered, and Betsy smiled again. George was SO funny.

  But then the play lady picked George up. "That's enough for now," she said. "You'd better take a nap before lunch. We have a big day ahead of us. The mayor is coming to visit the hospital today, and later on you will be going home, George."

  When George woke up, Steve was just taking his first steps. A nurse was helping him, and the children were watching.

  The go-cart was standing there empty. George was curious. He looked at it. Then he climbed into it.

  Then he grabbed the wheels and then, while nobody was looking, he wheeled the go-cart right out of the room.

  George could make the go-cart go very fast. This was fun! Down the hall he went. By now the nurse had noticed that he was gone and came running after him. "George! George!" she shouted.

  But George was too excited to listen. He wheeled around the corner and down the ramp to the floor below, where some men were busy pushing lunch carts, and a lot of doctors and nurses were showing the mayor around.

  George tried to stop, but it was too late. WHAM!—the go-cart landed right in the middle of everything. Lunch carts tumbled. Spinach and scrambled eggs and strawberry jam were all over the floor. People fell over each other, and George was thrown out of the go-cart and landed right in the mayor's arms.

  What a mess it was!

  "You broke all my dishes!" someone cried.

  "He ruined the go-cart!" complained another.

  "What will the mayor think of it?" whispered someone else. And so it went.

  Suddenly everybody looked up and listened. From above came happy laughter—and there stood Betsy, laughing, laughing, laughing. Then the children joined in, then the mayor started laughing, and finally everybody just laughed and laughed. Everybody, that is, except George.

  Betsy came running down the ramp, threw her arms around George, and kissed him. "Don't be sad, George," she said. "The whole thing was SO funny! I never laughed so much in my life. I'm so glad you were in the hospital with me."

  Now the director of the hospital spoke: "I am sorry this happened, Mr. Mayor," he said, "but I think we'll just clean up the mess and be done with it."

  "George," he went on, "you've made a terrible mess. But you also made our sad little Betsy happy again, and that is more than any of us has done.

  "And now I see your friend has just come to take you home. So, goodbye George, and take good care of y
ourself."

  The children crowded around the windows waving goodbye when George and the man with the yellow hat were finally leaving the hospital.

  As the car was turning into the driveway Nurse Carol came running after them. "Here's a little package with something that belongs to you, George," she called. "But don't open it before you are home!"

  George was curious—well, who would not be? The moment he reached home he ripped the paper off, tore open the box—and THERE

  was the piece of the puzzle that had caused all the trouble!

  "How nice of the doctor to save it for us!" said the man with the yellow hat. "And NOW we can finish the puzzle."

  The End

  * * *

  Retrospective Essay

  by Dee Jones

  WITH A PHOTOGRAPHIC ALBUM OF

  MARGRET AND H. A. ReY

  Early Life

  Both Hans and Margret Rey were born in Hamburg, Germany—Hans Augusto Reyersbach on September 16, 1898, and Margarete Elisabeth Waldstein on May 16, 1906. Hans received an old-style humanistic education and studied Latin, Greek, French, and English. Although art was not a part of his studies, he loved to draw and did so from a very young age. A drawing of horses in the park was done when he was just eight years old.

  Hans, better known by his initials, H. A., served in the German army during World War I and was stationed in France and Russia. In the early 1920s, H. A. and Margret met at a party at her parents' house in Hamburg. He was dating her older sister at the time, and when he first saw Margret she was sliding down the banister.