by Moe Zilla

Created on: March 05, 2009

It had been 22 years since the first Curious George book - and this would be one of the last. H. A. Rey was 65, but he still drew adventures for the man with the yellow hat and his monkey. And this time, it would be the most important adventure of all. He was going to teach the monkey how to read.

Or at least, he was going to draw the letters of the alphabet on an easel. "This is A," the man begins - and he draws an alligator's body above the letter, so A becomes the alligator's jaws. "This is a big A. There is also a small a," the man says. And the letter A is even highlighted throughout the page, so young readers can begin watching for it!

H.A. Rey's teaching strategy becomes clear when the small A becomes a slice of apple. "George knew alligators and apples," the narrator explains. "You could eat apples." And there's a cute drawing of George eating an apple from a bowl - while an alligator creeps up in the distance. "Alligators could eat you if you didn't watch out," Rey adds.

In a way, it's the strangest Curious George book of all - since it doesn't have a plot! Each page brings a new drawing of an animal or object (shaped like a letter) - along with a smaller drawing of George's reactions to them! ("The big B looks like a bird... George loved to watch birds... The big D could be a dinosaur... George had seen dinosaurs in a museum once.") Rey tries hard to refers his five earlier Curious George books in the man's conversations with his monkey. For example, the man with the yellow hat reminds George that they took a cab ride together once, and George himself remembers the time he saw dinosaurs at the museum. (And of course when they get to ostriches, George remembers the time an ostrich tried to swallow his bugle!)

H.A. Rey is a wonderful illustrator, and it's fun to see him freed from a strict storyline. He draws dromedaries, elephants, firemen, and geese. (And Rey couldn't resist reminding readers to "Never fool the fire department, or you go to jail, and that's no fun.") The man makes a chart for his monkey with four simple words, each one illustrated with a simple drawing. But on the next page, George is wearing the chart, and the man quips that "the only word you can read is bad!"

Soon the mischievous monkey is writing words on a page - including some words that he made up! When they get to the letter Q, there's two pages where George imagines himself as a quarterback. And when the man sends him to buy a dozen doughnuts, the monkey changes the word "one" to "ten," and comes back with 120 of them!

But when George gets to the letter Z, the man lets George eat them as a reward.

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