George

Cecily G. and the Nine Monkeys, written and illustrated by Hans Augusto Rey, was published in France in 1939. Can you guess why this is important?

Because it is the first story to introduce Curious George! (Except in he was originally named Zozo, perhaps to avoid naming a money after King George VI of England).

The couple fled Paris in June 1940 on self-made bicycles, carrying the Curious George manuscript with them. At first only H. A. Rey was credited for the work in order to distinguish the Reys' books from the large number of children's books written by female authors. Later, Hans Rey was credited for the illustrations and Margret Rey for the writing.

Curious George appeared in 1941. This book begins with George living in Africa and tells the story of his capture by the Man with the Yellow Hat, who takes him on a ship to "the big city" where he will live in the zoo. The second book, Curious George Takes a Job (1947), begins with George living in the zoo, from which he escapes and has several adventures before the Man with the Yellow Hat finds him and takes George to live at his house. The remaining stories tell of George's adventures while living at the house of the Man with the Yellow Hat. 

Sometimes dubbed the "Original Adventures", these original seven titles are completely by the series creators, Margret & H.A. Rey. 

Curious George (1941)
Curious George Takes a Job (1947)
Curious George Rides a Bike (1952)
Curious George Gets a Medal (1957)
Curious George Flies a Kite (1958)
Curious George Learns the Alphabet (1963)
Curious George Goes to the Hospital (1966)

Ezra loves to watch Curious George. And we really like George too. I think because George is a non-verbal monkey, the other character relate to George in a way that's really accessible to a toddler - but it doesn't come off as infantile. And each episode is only 11 minutes long, which is the perfect amount of time to allow me to hurry and get some task done without interruption, but short enough that I don't feel especially guilty about allowing Ezra to watch something.

And George explores all sorts of places that Ezra would otherwise have little exposure to. For example, the maple trees of New England! David came over this morning and we went to IHOP. Ezra was so excited for pancakes and immediately asked for syrup as soon as he heard the word "pancake". As we were driving to IHOP, he saw a tree and started saying "tap it? get syrup?" I was so confused until I realized that's George again.