The Original Curious George

As the introduction explains, the watercolor paintings that accompany this special edition of the very first Curious George story made their way out of Paris on the back of Hans Rey's bicycle, as he and his wife, Margaret, narrowly escaped the German occupation. By way of Spain and Brazil, Rey and his work came to the United States, where cash-strapped children's publishers always required "color separation" art--i.e., a different drawing for each color. So Rey's watercolors were not used, and for subsequent books he never even did them; only now, for the first time, has that first set been used directly. Otherwise, it's the story you probably already know, though a bit more luxuriously produced, about how Curious George came to make life a lot more interesting for the Man in the Yellow Hat. (Ages 3 to 8) --Richard Farr