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Curious George Board Books
Curious George Rides
Book by Rey, H. A., Rey, Margret, Rey, H.A., Margret
22 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1952
3 people are currently reading
135 people want to read
About the author
H.A. Rey
583 books213 followersHans Augusto Rey was born on September 16, 1898, in Hamburg, Germany. He grew up there near the world-famous Hagenbeck Zoo, and developed a lifelong love for animals and drawing. Margarete Elisabeth Waldstein (who would be known to most of the world as Margret Rey) was also born in Hamburg on May 16, 1906. The two met briefly when Margret was a young girl, before she left Hamburg to study art. They were reunited in 1935 in Rio de Janeiro, where Hans was selling bathtubs as part of a family business and Margret was escaping the political climate in Germany. Margret convinced Hans to leave the family business, and soon they were working together on a variety of projects.
Hans and Margret were married in Brazil on August 16, 1935, and they moved to Paris after falling in love with the city during their European honeymoon. It was there that Hans published his first children’s book, after a French publisher saw his newspaper cartoons of a giraffe and asked him to expand upon them. Raffy and the Nine Monkeys (Cecily G. and the Nine Monkeys in the British and American editions) was the result, and it marked the debut of a mischievous monkey named Curious George.
After Raffy and the Nine Monkeys was published, the Reys decided that Curious George deserved a book of his own, so they began work on a manuscript that featured the lovable and exceedingly curious little monkey. But the late 1930s and early ’40s were a tumultuous time in Europe, and before the new manuscript could be published, the Reys—both German Jews—found themselves in a horrible situation. Hitler and his Nazi party were tearing through Europe, and they were poised to take control of Paris.
Knowing that they must escape before the Nazis took power, Hans cobbled together two bicycles out of spare parts. Early in the morning of June 14, 1940, the Reys set off on their bicycles. They brought very little with them on their predawn flight — only warm coats, a bit of food, and five manuscripts, one of which was Curious George. The Nazis entered Paris just hours later, but the Reys were already on their way out. They rode their makeshift bicycles for four long days until reaching the French-Spanish border, where they sold them for train fare to Lisbon. From there they made their way to Brazil and on to New York City, beginning a whole new life as children’s book authors.
Curious George was published by Houghton Mifflin in 1941, and for sixty years these books have been capturing the hearts and minds of readers throughout the world. All the Curious George books, including the seven original stories by Margret and Hans, have sold more than twenty-five million copies. So popular that his original story has never been out of print, George has become one of the most beloved and recognizable characters in children’s literature. His adventures have been translated into many languages, including Japanese, French, Afrikaans, Portuguese, Swedish, German, Chinese, Danish, and Norwegian.
Although both of the Reys have passed away — Hans in 1977 and Margret in 1996—George lives on in the Curious George Foundation. Established in 1989, this foundation funds programs for children that share Curious George’s irresistible qualities—ingenuity, opportunity, determination, and curiosity in learning and exploring. Much consideration is given to programs that benefit animals, through preservation as well as the prevention of cruelty to animals. The foundation supports community outreach programs that emphasize the importance of family, from counseling to peer support groups.
Hans and Margret were married in Brazil on August 16, 1935, and they moved to Paris after falling in love with the city during their European honeymoon. It was there that Hans published his first children’s book, after a French publisher saw his newspaper cartoons of a giraffe and asked him to expand upon them. Raffy and the Nine Monkeys (Cecily G. and the Nine Monkeys in the British and American editions) was the result, and it marked the debut of a mischievous monkey named Curious George.
After Raffy and the Nine Monkeys was published, the Reys decided that Curious George deserved a book of his own, so they began work on a manuscript that featured the lovable and exceedingly curious little monkey. But the late 1930s and early ’40s were a tumultuous time in Europe, and before the new manuscript could be published, the Reys—both German Jews—found themselves in a horrible situation. Hitler and his Nazi party were tearing through Europe, and they were poised to take control of Paris.
Knowing that they must escape before the Nazis took power, Hans cobbled together two bicycles out of spare parts. Early in the morning of June 14, 1940, the Reys set off on their bicycles. They brought very little with them on their predawn flight — only warm coats, a bit of food, and five manuscripts, one of which was Curious George. The Nazis entered Paris just hours later, but the Reys were already on their way out. They rode their makeshift bicycles for four long days until reaching the French-Spanish border, where they sold them for train fare to Lisbon. From there they made their way to Brazil and on to New York City, beginning a whole new life as children’s book authors.
Curious George was published by Houghton Mifflin in 1941, and for sixty years these books have been capturing the hearts and minds of readers throughout the world. All the Curious George books, including the seven original stories by Margret and Hans, have sold more than twenty-five million copies. So popular that his original story has never been out of print, George has become one of the most beloved and recognizable characters in children’s literature. His adventures have been translated into many languages, including Japanese, French, Afrikaans, Portuguese, Swedish, German, Chinese, Danish, and Norwegian.
Although both of the Reys have passed away — Hans in 1977 and Margret in 1996—George lives on in the Curious George Foundation. Established in 1989, this foundation funds programs for children that share Curious George’s irresistible qualities—ingenuity, opportunity, determination, and curiosity in learning and exploring. Much consideration is given to programs that benefit animals, through preservation as well as the prevention of cruelty to animals. The foundation supports community outreach programs that emphasize the importance of family, from counseling to peer support groups.
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
April 12, 2025
Zowee, kids! In return for clicking the Read for Free button on Kindle Unlimited I got my own Ride in an Amazon Time Machine, way back to Mrs. Winnifred’s class in Grade One, picking up the first rudiments of reading.
My Mom would buy Curious George books for us kids, downstairs at the Westgate Frieman’s Department Store where she worked to buy the family special Christmas Gifts, like our B&W TV with built-in Stereo Record Changer and Radio.
She used the extra pin money, in other words, to supplement Dad’s then-meagre salary as a probationary biologist at the Agriculture Department. Mrs. Winnifred, who as I said was my teacher in 1955, lived on a peace of prime real estate with a backyard fronting on hundreds of acres of Department of Agriculture farmland.
And we too were blessed - our backyard facing acres and acres of green space!
Anyway, though, fast forward to this book…
For kids learning to read as I was back then, it’s non pareil. The words are simple, and Mr. Rey’s illustrations are superb. I particularly like it when The Man in the Yellow Hat - the guy who extracted motherless George from the jungle, and brought him home to the States - gets him out of his high-riding pickles!
To us high-energy Fifties’ tots, our back yard was George’s Jungle, and Dad was the eminently sensible Man in the Yellow Hat…
Four big stars, kids🤓❗️
***
But now, the animistic fallacies of my life as a toddler are vanished.
The world is little and manageable to this old coot, when I take it step by step.
Where it was once a mysterious jungle to George, now it is an ordinary house, with a manicured lawn and a pampered garden.
Or at least so it seems to an old senior citizen -
Whose ego has shrunk with 75 years of hard knocks -
To the size of a shrunken pea.
My Mom would buy Curious George books for us kids, downstairs at the Westgate Frieman’s Department Store where she worked to buy the family special Christmas Gifts, like our B&W TV with built-in Stereo Record Changer and Radio.
She used the extra pin money, in other words, to supplement Dad’s then-meagre salary as a probationary biologist at the Agriculture Department. Mrs. Winnifred, who as I said was my teacher in 1955, lived on a peace of prime real estate with a backyard fronting on hundreds of acres of Department of Agriculture farmland.
And we too were blessed - our backyard facing acres and acres of green space!
Anyway, though, fast forward to this book…
For kids learning to read as I was back then, it’s non pareil. The words are simple, and Mr. Rey’s illustrations are superb. I particularly like it when The Man in the Yellow Hat - the guy who extracted motherless George from the jungle, and brought him home to the States - gets him out of his high-riding pickles!
To us high-energy Fifties’ tots, our back yard was George’s Jungle, and Dad was the eminently sensible Man in the Yellow Hat…
Four big stars, kids🤓❗️
***
But now, the animistic fallacies of my life as a toddler are vanished.
The world is little and manageable to this old coot, when I take it step by step.
Where it was once a mysterious jungle to George, now it is an ordinary house, with a manicured lawn and a pampered garden.
Or at least so it seems to an old senior citizen -
Whose ego has shrunk with 75 years of hard knocks -
To the size of a shrunken pea.
October 24, 2015
This is another tale of Curious George, a cheeky little monkey who is not only curious but also is always ready to ride off on an adventure.
In this volume he rides a large ball in his bedroom, rides a bike at the circus - showing off in the ringmaster's parade of animals, and goes into town on the bus rather than travel by taxi or subway train. When he wants to ride high up in the sky he grabs hold of a bunch of large balloons or hangs on to a kite and is taken by the wind high over the town. Sometimes he even rides in a helicopter - lucky George!
But when he wants to go home he rides in a little blue car with his friend, the man with the yellow hat, who is credited with bringing George from Africa and who pops up in other of George's exciting adventures.
This is simply a fun book and anyone who reads it will soon become a Curious George aficionado.
Footnote: I notice that he was so popular that at Christmas 2003 he was featured, along with the man with the yellow hat, in the White House decorations alongside a portrait of Barbara Bush. What a powerful monkey with influential friends!
In this volume he rides a large ball in his bedroom, rides a bike at the circus - showing off in the ringmaster's parade of animals, and goes into town on the bus rather than travel by taxi or subway train. When he wants to ride high up in the sky he grabs hold of a bunch of large balloons or hangs on to a kite and is taken by the wind high over the town. Sometimes he even rides in a helicopter - lucky George!
But when he wants to go home he rides in a little blue car with his friend, the man with the yellow hat, who is credited with bringing George from Africa and who pops up in other of George's exciting adventures.
This is simply a fun book and anyone who reads it will soon become a Curious George aficionado.
Footnote: I notice that he was so popular that at Christmas 2003 he was featured, along with the man with the yellow hat, in the White House decorations alongside a portrait of Barbara Bush. What a powerful monkey with influential friends!
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September 10, 2021We are now on a Curious George kick.
May 29, 2017
The little monkey we all know and love in a childsize board book about the different ways he gets around..but I must admit either its been a long time since I read one or this was rewritten for brevity as this was kinda random and disjointed as a whole book..the book puts little George in a room riding a ball, riding a bicycle in a circus, riding atop a bus in the city, with a bunch of balloons, on a kite, a helicopter and finally in a blue car with his man with the yellow hat..I don’t know I kinda expected a little mayhem a little danger and plot with Curious George doing what he does best but its just a little story about transportation and getting around..Not the best, eh it was okay I guess for little little kids that are not looking for something plot heavy.
July 19, 2022
I have nostalgic memories of reading George when I was young and couldn't pass up one focused on transportation (my husband's field of work). This has George on a ball, bike, taxicab, subway, bus, hanging from balloons in the sky, hanging onto a kite, in a helicopter, and going home in the little blue car.
October 6, 2014
This board book is a combination of several George Books...Doesn't really have a 'storyline' to it but starts out by asking "How does George move around...." then goes on to say his room on a ball, around town on a bus, in the air... etc. So a very simple nice book to teach young readers ways of movement from bicycles, kites, buses, balloons etc.
July 18, 2012
It's decent. I checked it out because Emerson likes George and it is a board book--one I can tuck into his crib at night for him to find in the morning. Without fear of him mutilating it. The book is without a plot.
May 3, 2013
Eli loves anything George.
June 2, 2015
We love Curious George. He's such a silly monkey!
May 26, 2016
A sweet, concise board book perfect for 1-2 year olds.
August 28, 2018
Cute. Good board book adaptation.
April 14, 2020
Curious George is out and about riding in all sorts of transportation vehicles. Preschool and up
November 20, 2021
George has ridden many things, balls, bike, trains, balloons, kites, helicopters, and buses just to name a few, but his favorite is when he's riding with the man with the yellow hat.
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November 13, 2018I love the Curious George series for young children and this book is good for preschool children to learn about different objects.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews