Curious George is everyone's favorite mischievous monkey. Created by Margret and Hans Rey, "Curious George" has captured the hearts of many kids and adults since it was published in 1941. Margret and Hans Rey were one of the cutest couples ever. Why were they a cute couple? Well, for one they collaborated to create the stories: Hans was in charge of ideas and illustration and Margret was in charge of writing the plots. They also had such a strong love and passion for animals that every time they would travel to a new city, the first thing they would do is visit the zoo. The idea for "Curious George" stemmed from this love of animals as well as Rey's first book, "Cecily G. and the Nine Monkeys," in which a certain monkey named FiFi later became Curious George. There are many fantastic stories of George's endeavors, but today I am going to review the masterpiece "Curious George Plays Baseball."
The story begins with the man with the yellow hat telling George that their friend Jimmy is playing in a baseball game, and they are going to go cheer him on. When they get to the game, the man with the yellow hat sees Jimmy's mother. He totally has a thing for her -- although it is not directly stated in the book, it is implied with how excited he is to see her. The man then gets up and walks over to say hello to this fine lady and tells George to stay there and not get into trouble. Everyone knows true love is leaving your monkey unattended.
Just look at how excited he is.
After all the incidences of Curious George getting into mischief, it seems like the man would know by now to not leave his monkey unattended. But alas, if he did learn, we wouldn't have these stories. After leaving George sitting in the stands without his supervision, George sits and watches the boys play baseball. After a while, George begins to get curious if he could play baseball too. He leaves the stands, like the naughty monkey he is, and sneaks over to the dugout where he finds a bunch of balls and bats laying on the ground. How convenient. He starts throwing balls up with his feet and whacking them with the bat in his hands sending balls all over the field. Pure skill. However, the umpire and baseball players don't appreciate this. The angry umpire orders the baseball players to get him out of there.
Silly George.
Oh no, George! Run from the angry Jimmies!
All the baseball players look exactly the same -- which one is Jimmy?! Are they all Jimmy? We may never know. They all are angrily running after a frightened George. I'm wondering what they would do if they caught George. Hopefully nothing bad. Luckily, George escapes by climbing up a pole with his supermonkey climbing abilities. And the game continues. Everyone in the audience is completely unfazed by all this commotion. Look at how happy, calm, and unassuming they look. What is wrong with them? Can't they see the monkey being chased by all the players?
They're just straight-up chilling.
Then, the batter hits the ball really hard and it flows toward the crowd and is heading right towards Jimmy's mother! Now the audience looks concerned. Why do they care so much about the lady but not about George? It's like he's not even a person ... oh wait.
Though George may get into a lot of trouble, he still knows the right thing to do. When he sees the ball flying towards Jimmy's mother, since he is high up on the pole, he reaches out and grabs it, saving her life! Then the crowd cheers for what George has done. Okay, so now they pay attention to him.
But wait ... where is the man with the yellow hat?
Then, believe it or not, the umpire stops the game and he and all the players go over to George and lift him up, cheering for him. Then out of nowhere, the man with the yellow hat comes back and says he saw it all. But where was he? Where did he go after saying hello to Jimmy's mother? These are questions which remain an enigmatic mystery which aren't explained anywhere in the book. The man with the yellow hat is a strange, strange man. Then George and the man drive home, as the man tells George he is the hero of the day. And he was.
Congrats, George, you did it.
This book was very enticing and it was a real page turner. As you can see, the illustrations are impeccable and the iconic style reminds me so much of my childhood. "Curious George" is a timeless classic, and I encourage you all to check him out the next time you visit your local library. You won't be disappointed, I guarantee it.
