by Moe Zilla

Created on: March 14, 2009

In this book George celebrates the three-year anniversary of his being captured in the jungle by the man with the yellow hat. It's the third book in the series, and probably the most fun. "Curious George Rides a Bike" starts on a special day for George, as the man with the yellow hat opens the lid of a big box. But before long the monkey's getting into more fun trouble.

I like how everyone in the book is so friendly. A smiling newsboy offers to let George deliver newspapers. And the smiling townspeople are delighted to have a monkey delivering their papers. What makes these stories special is the gentle and friendly tone of the narration by H. A. Rey.

"Out of the box came a bicycle," writes Rey - and throughout the whole book, he uses a relaxed pace. Rey describes the bike coming out of the box. He describes things George sees on the river. And he'll even devotes nine drawings to instructions for building a paper boat out of a newspaper!

It's a crucial plot point, because toy boats on the river inspire George to create one of his own. And soon, an entire fleet. There's a great drawing of a river filled with newspaper

boats, as the smiling monkey looks on proudly. "George felt like an admiral," Rey writes.

When the monkey gets into trouble, it's usually without realizing it.

George's paper deliveries were ended when he was distracted by a river at the end of the street. Then a rock dents the wheel on George's bike. "His new bike was spoiled, the newspapers were gone..." And maybe I'm a sadist, but I also like it when the monkey cries.

Because it never lasts - he's happy again in the next drawing. The monkeys tries riding on one wheel, and gets spotted by a traveling circus... He gets in trouble again there when he an ostrich tries to eat his trumpet. And inevitably something else happens - a chance to redeem himself by rescuing an escaped bear cub. George ends up a hero at the center of the circus performance, and he's reunited with the man with the yellow hat. And forgiven by the newsboy, as well as the people who's newspapers he'd made into boats!

After H.A. Rey died, his publisher continued releasing books that were written "in his style." But true fans of the funny monkey will want to read Rey's original stories. In his lifetime, Rey would write just four more books about George and the man with the yellow hat.

But "Curious George Rides a Bike" is one of Rey's best.

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