by Moe Zilla

Created on: March 13, 2009

It's the first book, and it tells how the monkey first met "the man with the yellow hat". The man is seen watching the monkey in a dark green forest, and then hiding behind a tree to watch the monkey examine the yellow hat left on the ground. The book patiently describes all the funny pictures, but the cartoon-like illustrations also help to tell the story of the smiling little monkey, and the smiling man watching him.

"This is George. He lived in Africa." And so it begins... But a series of three drawings show the monkey cheerfully approaching the man's hat and then trying it on. His head disappears into its enormous hole, and now he can't see the man in yellow sneaking up behind him. In the next drawing, the monkey's tied up in a gunny sack! "George was sad," the narrator writes, "but he was still a little curious." And there's beautiful blue water as a sailor rows towards a ship with the monkey and his captor...

It's the biggest transition in the monkey's life, but it's just as funny as the rest. George is being taken to a zoo, explains the man with the hat (smoking a pipe), and he then casually suggests that the monkey go off and play. ("But don't get into any trouble...") George's first game is trying to fly like a seagull - and two sailors have to pull him out of the ocean. But soon it's time to leave the ship, and George is treated to a good meal - and a pipe of his own!

It's this book that set the tone for the series to come, which is essentially that "one thing leads to another." George dials a telephone - but what do you know? He's accidentally dialed the fire station. Soon four fire trucks are hurrying towards the house that made the call, but all they find is "a naughty little monkey" tangled up in the telephone cord. There's a great picture of seven firemen, all grabbing and stumbling in a chase for the monkey. And where does curious George end up? Prison.

It's probably the most trouble that the monkey will ever get into. The book's cover uses the same picture - two firemen escorting the monkey to prison - but you'll notice a subtle difference. On the cover, George is smiling, as if the firemen were just tickling his arms. But in the book he's frowning helplessly. (And in his prison cell, there's even some rats eating his cheese.) The drawing of the prison is mostly gray. But soon there's a smile on George's face - since his watchman has left the door open!

And from there, it's a rush to the happy ending. George tries to grab a balloon, but gets whisked to the sky instead. H.A. Rey draws an aerial view of the city as seen by the dangling monkey, but eventually the balloons lower the monkey onto a lamp post. The man rescues the missing monkey, and transports him to the zoo after all. When the book opened, George was a wild monkey living in the jungle, and munching bananas in a vine swing. But now he's distributed all his balloons to the zoo's other animals, and in the book's final drawing, George sits on top of a tree again - and is very happy.

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