H. A. Rey & Margret Rey [CURIOUS GEORGE 01] Curious George and Friends (v5.0)

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With an introduction by Margaret Bloy Graham

Curious George and Friends

Favorite Stories by Margret & H. A. Rey

Houghton Mifflin Company Boston 2003

With appreciation to Lay Lee Ong, Emily West, and Norman West

Permissions, Houghton Mifflin Company, 215 Park Avenue South, New York, New York 10003.

www.houghtonmifflinbooks.com

Curious George

Cecily G. and the 9 Monkeys

Elizabite: Adventures of a Carnivorous Plant

Pretzel

Katy No-Pocket

Spotty

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Whiteblack the Penguin Sees the World

Illustrations in introduction from: Curious George Rides a Bike; the Rey estate, provided by the de Grummond Children's

Literature Collection, the University of Southern Mississippi, Hattiesburg; and Curious George Gets a Medal.

ISBN 0-618-22610-9

Manufactured in the United States of America

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Curious George [>]

Cecily G. and the 9 Monkeys [>]

Elizabite [>]

Pretzel [>]

Katy No-Pocket written by Emmy Payne [>]

Spotty [>]

Billy's Picture [>]

Whiteblack the Penguin Sees the World [>]

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By lucky chance Hans Rey's niece was in New York City when I first arrived in May 1943. A mutual friend had asked her to look me up. I had just graduated from the University of Toronto in art history and had a student visa to attend summer classes at the Art

Students League. I hoped to stay on in New York and illustrate children's books. So when Lottie said she would introduce me to her aunt and uncle, Margret and Hans Rey, who were in that field, I was delighted.

Although I had never heard of the Reys, I soon discovered that they were well

known. They had come from Germany via France and Brazil in 1940 and already had had several books published in the United States, as well as in France and England.

The Reys lived in Greenwich Village, as I did, and life there was casual and fun.

Washington Square, where they lived, was a great meeting place, and the Reys knew lots of people—friends and authors and artists from all over. Margret was the more

gregarious; Hans was quieter, with a smile for everyone. Most of the people they knew had dogs and walked them every evening in the square. Margret and Hans had a black cocker spaniel, Charkie, the first of a succession of spaniels. When Charkie got old and his whiskers turned white, people would say, "Poor old dog." Margret soon stopped such

remarks by dyeing his whiskers black. The Reys' dogs were an important part of their life, and Hans sometimes put Margret and Charkie in his illustrations, as in The Park Book and Curious George Rides a Bike.

I had no experience in book illustration, and no samples or portfolio. When I asked the Reys for advice, Hans, who was always kind and helpful, encouraged me to make some samples. This was fortunate, because one day in 1948 Margret called and said that Ursula Nordstrom at Harper, one of the best children's book editors in the business, had asked if she knew any new artists for a new book, and Margret recommended me. So I began my career with Harper.

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Generally the books began with one of Hans's great pictorial ideas, such as the soap powder episode in Curious George Gets a Medal.

Hans's drawings have a wonderful vitality, a feeling of life and motion and fun. When the Boston Public Library had a big exhibit of the Reys' work in 2000, I was thrilled to see a very early drawing, done when Hans was eight, of people riding in a park in Hamburg. The horses move and prance, and one realizes how obvious his talent was from the beginning.

Margret was a gifted idea person, writer, and editor; she was very like Curious

George, mischievous and inquisitive. Hans and Margret were a perfect picture-book team. Together they constructed the story amid lots of arguments and changes. Sometimes Margret would quickly take a sketch from Hans, cut it up, and put it together in a more dramatic way. Margret could be very critical, as all who met her soon found out. Both Reys were meticulous craftsmen: each page was carefully designed and every detail thoroughly worked out. Hans did four-color separations of the artwork: each color had to be interpreted in black and gray on a separate sheet of paper, a difficult and demanding task.

In 1963 Margret and Hans moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts, and spent summers in Waterville Valley, New Hampshire. Living close to Harvard Square, the Reys lived very much as they had in New York. Cambridge in the 1960s was similar to the Village in the 1940s and '50s. There were get-togethers with friends and relatives, dog walking,

socializing in the street, visits to bookshops and art galleries, concerts and parties. The Reys always gave a New Year's Eve party with champagne and beautiful hors d'oeuvres lovingly made by Hans. In Cambridge they had a large house and a small garden; in Waterville Valley, a small house and a large garden. Margret was an avid and

enthusiastic gardener; she was always busy and cheerful, singing as she dug and planted. She was also an enthusiastic potter, taking lessons at the Cambridge Center for Adult Education and the Haystack Mountain School of Crafts in Maine.

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invite the neighbors to take a look. He always had a cluster of fascinated people around him. It was the same in Waterville Valley, where the clear night skies delighted him.

When I moved to Cambridge in the summer of 1965, I was working on the first book that I both wrote and illustrated, Be Nice to Spiders, about a spider named Helen. Before the Reys went to Waterville for the summer, I showed the dummy to Margret and asked for her advice. She sent me the following:

Re: Helen: I think you are doing alright. You just have to learn how to put a story together. A story should always have a hero (Helen) whom you can identify with, or let's say, feel with. And it should come to a climax, the climax in your case being that Helen nearly gets killed when they clean up. Maybe it needs a scene, picture, when they clean up and nearly get her with the broom. And then an ending, in this case the discovery that Helen is doing good, plus an end picture which should come quickly, not an ending that is drawn out too long. Well—that's the way I see it, but I guess I said that all before.

I came to know the Reys much better after I moved to Cambridge. They were a great and lasting influence on my life, and I am eternally grateful to them both.

—MARGARET BLOY GRAHAM

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by

H. A. Rey

This is George. He lived in Africa.

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He had on a large yellow straw hat. The man saw George too.

"What a nice little monkey," he thought. "I would like to take him home with me." He put his hat on the ground

and, of course, George was curious. He came down from the tree

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He couldn't see.

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The man took off the bag.

George sat on a little stool and the man said, "George, I am going to take you to a big Zoo

in a big city. You will like it there.

Now run along and play, but don't get into trouble." George promised to be good.

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He wondered how they could fly. He was very curious.

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First this—

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The sailors looked and looked.

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over.

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the man telephoned the Zoo.

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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.

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The firemen jumped on to the fire engines and on to the hook-and-ladders.

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They opened the door. NO FIRE!

ONLY a naughty little monkey.

"Oh, catch him, catch him," they cried. George tried to run away.

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"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

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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.

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monkey: out he walked on to the telephone wires.

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A little girl bought a balloon for her brother. George watched.

He was curious again.

He felt he MUST have a bright red balloon.

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The houses looked like toy houses and the people like dolls. George was frightened.

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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,

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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.

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By

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Mother Pamplemoose and Baby Jinny

Curious George who was clever, too

James who was good

Johnny who was brave

Arthur who was kind

David who was strong

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plain Cecily for short.

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monkeys. They were sad, too, because some woodcutters had cut down all the trees in their forest, and monkeys have to have trees to live in. One of the little monkeys was called Curious George. He was a clever monkey. He said, "We must pack up at once and go on a journey to find a new home."

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There stood Cecily Giraffe! When she saw the monkeys, she stopped crying. "Do you want to get across?" she said.

"Yes, yes!" they cried.

"Step back then," called Cecily G.

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across. Then came Johnny, who was a brave monkey. Then all the others, one by one.

"Thank you, dear Giraffe," shouted George, "and please put your head down a little so that we can talk to you without shouting. That's better! What is your name and why are you sad?"

"My name is Cecily Giraffe, and I am unhappy because I haven't anyone to play with. Why are you sad?"

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"We'd love to," cried all the monkeys at once.

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Jinny got so excited that Mother Pamplemoose was afraid she would fall off. She had to climb down and give her place to James, who got an extra ride. Jinny cried a little, but Arthur, who was very kind, dried her tears and told her that he had an idea for another game that she could play better.

So Arthur whispered something to all the other monkeys. They rushed into the house where they had left their belongings and in a minute they were back with their skis.

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the top of that palm tree over there."

"I'll be glad to," said Cecily, and she did.

Then all the monkeys put on their skis, climbed the tree, and slid down Cecily's back, over and over again. Brave Johnny even did stunts. When he jumped he seemed to be flying.

After a while Cecily's neck got tired, but she was having such a good time that she hardly noticed. "You are a wonderful skier, Johnny," she said.

Johnny was so pleased he tried a specially high jump and—bump—down he fell, flat on his nose.

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Johnny thought very hard because he was such a good monkey that he wanted Cecily to be sure and have fun, too. All at once he had a wonderful idea. "We'll make some stilts for Cecily G.," he cried.

Johnny and David, who was a very strong monkey, cut down two palm trees. The twins, Punch and Judy, did the sawing.

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them to Cecily G. and showed her how to use them.

Cecily Giraffe was terribly excited.

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the seashore.

After a short walk, they came to the beach and Mother Pamplemoose thought it would be nice to have a swim before lunch. But Johnny had been thinking. He asked Cecily to put down her head so that he could whisper in her ear.

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orders and

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"Quick, quick, climb on my back," called Cecily Giraffe, when Johnny cried for help.

In a minute they were safe on the beach, but Cecily was so wet and cold, they decided to take off her skin and hang it in the sun to dry.

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up and hid the sun.

"Oh—oh—it's going to rain—" cried the monkeys.

Off they rushed, and back they came, one-two, one-two, carrying their umbrellas on their shoulders.

But the rain didn't start at once and James thought it would be fun to use the umbrellas for a new game. He called it "Parachute-jumping."

Each monkey, one at a time, climbed up on Cecily's head, opened his umbrella and jumped off.

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see something and—thump—down he fell. When he looked at his broken umbrella, he sat down on the ground to cry. And, just at that moment, the rain started. Poor George!

Great splashing drops began to fall all around him.

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The concert stopped almost before it started, but no one knew what to do to put out the fire.

"If only we had a ladder, we could throw water on the flames," cried Mother Pamplemoose.

"I know what to do," said James. "There's a pump near the house, and a hose, and Cecily can be the ladder."

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Cecily looked at the wet little monkeys and said, "Dear new friends, I don't know how to thank you.... Would you like to stay with me always? It would make me very happy."

"Oh, Cecily G.," cried Mother Pamplemoose, baby Jinny, curious George, brave Johnny, good little James, kind Arthur, strong David, and the twins, Punch and Judy, all together, "We'll stay with you for ever and ever.... And now let's finish our concert."

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in di-is - may till Ce-ci - ly

Gi-raff' had us a - long t-o stay

so here in a ri-ing we'll all dance and si-ing

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ADVENTURES OF A CARNIVOROUS PLANT

by

H. A. REY

YOU would not think that plants like meat. Well, some plants do. They catch and eat Small insects, such as flies and ants, And they are called

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Surrounded by her children bright She lived in happiness and glory Up to this day...

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Pretzel

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They grew up the way puppies do, and they all looked exactly alike the first few weeks.

Pretzel

Paul

Patricia

Priscilla

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he had become the longest dachshund in all the world.

Pretzel was very pleased with

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