H. A. Rey - Curious George

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Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston

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Copyright 1941 and renewed 1969 by Margret E. Rey
Copyright assigned to Houghton Mifflin Company in 1993 All rights reserved. For information about permission
to reproduce selections from this book, write to
Permissions, Houghton Mifflin Company,
215 Park Avenue South, New York, New York 10003. Printed in the United States of America ISBN: 0-395-15993-8 Reinforced Edition
ISBN: 0-395-15023-X Sandpiper Edition WOZ Eighty First Printing

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This book belongs to This is George. He lived in Africa. One day George saw a man. One day George saw a man.

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 to look at the large yellow hat. The hat had been on the man's head.

George thought it would be nice to have it on his own head. He picked it up and put it on. The hat covered George's head. He couldn't see. The man picked him up quickly and popped him into a bag. The man with the big yellow hat put George into a little boat, and a sailor rowed them both across the water to a big ship. The man with the big yellow hat put George into a little boat, and a sailor rowed them both across the water to a big ship.

George was sad, but he was still a little curious. On the big ship, things began to happen. 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.

But it is easy for little monkeys to forget. On the deck he found some sea gulls. He wondered how they could fly. He was very curious. Finally he HAD to try. It looked easy.

But oh, what happened! First this and then this! "WHERE IS GEORGE?" The sailors looked and looked. At last they saw him struggling in the water, and almost all tired out. "Man overboard!" the sailors cried as they threw him a lifebelt. George caught it and held on. At last he was safe on board. After that George was more careful 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. "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.

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