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Curious George Stories to Share: A Delightful Collection of Curious George Adventures for Kids
Eight exciting stories about Curious George in a jam-packed treasury.
A new paper-over-board treasury of Curious George adventures! Sales of the individual books exceed 1.8 million copies! This value-priced offering includes $32.00 worth of books for $10.99. Enjoy these popular Curious George and the Firefighters, Curious George at the Aquarium, Curious George’s Dinosaur Discovery, Curious George at the Baseball Game, Curious George at the Parade, Curious George’s First Day of School, Curious George and the Pizza Party, and Curious George Plants a Tree.
A new paper-over-board treasury of Curious George adventures! Sales of the individual books exceed 1.8 million copies! This value-priced offering includes $32.00 worth of books for $10.99. Enjoy these popular Curious George and the Firefighters, Curious George at the Aquarium, Curious George’s Dinosaur Discovery, Curious George at the Baseball Game, Curious George at the Parade, Curious George’s First Day of School, Curious George and the Pizza Party, and Curious George Plants a Tree.
196 pages, Hardcover
First published September 1, 2011
131 people are currently reading
107 people want to read
About the author
Margret Rey
234 books121 followersMargret Elizabeth Rey (May 16, 1906 – December 21, 1996), born Margarete Elisabeth Waldstein, was (with her husband H. A. Rey), the co-author and illustrator of children's books, best known for their Curious George
Although she was born in Germany, she fled to Brazil early in her life to escape Nazism. While there, she met her future husband Hans (who was a salesman and also from Germany). They married in 1935 and moved to Paris, France that same year.
While in Paris, Hans's animal drawings came to the attention of French publisher, who commissioned him to write a children's book. The result, Rafi and the Nine Monkeys, is little remembered today, but one of its characters, an adorably impish monkey named Curious George, was such a success that the couple considered writing a book just about him. Their work was interrupted with the outbreak of World War II. As Jews, the Reys decided to flee Paris before the Nazis seized the city. Hans built two bicycles, and they fled Paris just a few hours before it fell. Among the meager possessions they brought with them was the illustrated manuscript of Curious George.
The Reys' odyssey brought them to the Spanish border, where they bought train tickets to Lisbon. From there they returned to Brazil, where they had met five years earlier, but this time they continued to New York, New York. The books were published by Houghton Mifflin in 1941, though certain changes had to be introduced because of the technology of the time. Hans and Margret originally planned to use watercolors to illustrate the books, but since they were responsible for the color separation, he changed these to the cartoon-like images that continue to feature in each of the books. (A collector's edition with the original watercolors was recently released.)
Curious George was an instant success, and the Reys were commissioned to write more adventures of the mischievous monkey and his friend, the Man in the Yellow Hat. They wrote seven stories in all, with Hans mainly doing the illustrations and Margret working mostly on the stories, though they both admitted to sharing the work and cooperating fully in every stage of development. At first, however, Margret's name was left off the cover, ostensibly because there was a glut of women already writing children's fiction. In later editions, this was corrected, and Margret now receives full credit for her role in developing the stories.
Margret and her husband moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1963, in a house close to Harvard Square. Following her husband's death in 1977, Margret continued writing, and in 1979, became a Professor of Creative Writing at Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts. Starting in 1980, she also began to collaborate with Alan Shalleck on a series of short films featuring Curious George and more than two dozen additional books.
In 1989 Margret Rey established the Curious George Foundation to help creative children and prevent cruelty to animals. In 1996, she made major donations to the Boston Public Library and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. She was also a long-time supporter of the Longy School of Music. The Reys spent twenty summers in Waterville Valley, New Hampshire, to enable H.A. Rey to better observe the stars for his astronomy writing. They became an integral part of the Waterville community and their legacy is honored by The Margret and H.A. Rey Center and the Curious George Cottage located there.
Dr. Lena Y. de Grummond, a professor in the field of library science (specializing in children's literature) at The University of Southern Mississippi in Hattiesburg, Miss. contacted the Reys in 1966 about the university's new children's literature collection. H.A. and Margret made a donation of a pair of sketches at the time. In 1996, after Margret's death, it was revealed in her will that the entire literary estate of the Reys were to be donated to the de Grummond Children's Literature Collection at Southern Miss.
Although she was born in Germany, she fled to Brazil early in her life to escape Nazism. While there, she met her future husband Hans (who was a salesman and also from Germany). They married in 1935 and moved to Paris, France that same year.
While in Paris, Hans's animal drawings came to the attention of French publisher, who commissioned him to write a children's book. The result, Rafi and the Nine Monkeys, is little remembered today, but one of its characters, an adorably impish monkey named Curious George, was such a success that the couple considered writing a book just about him. Their work was interrupted with the outbreak of World War II. As Jews, the Reys decided to flee Paris before the Nazis seized the city. Hans built two bicycles, and they fled Paris just a few hours before it fell. Among the meager possessions they brought with them was the illustrated manuscript of Curious George.
The Reys' odyssey brought them to the Spanish border, where they bought train tickets to Lisbon. From there they returned to Brazil, where they had met five years earlier, but this time they continued to New York, New York. The books were published by Houghton Mifflin in 1941, though certain changes had to be introduced because of the technology of the time. Hans and Margret originally planned to use watercolors to illustrate the books, but since they were responsible for the color separation, he changed these to the cartoon-like images that continue to feature in each of the books. (A collector's edition with the original watercolors was recently released.)
Curious George was an instant success, and the Reys were commissioned to write more adventures of the mischievous monkey and his friend, the Man in the Yellow Hat. They wrote seven stories in all, with Hans mainly doing the illustrations and Margret working mostly on the stories, though they both admitted to sharing the work and cooperating fully in every stage of development. At first, however, Margret's name was left off the cover, ostensibly because there was a glut of women already writing children's fiction. In later editions, this was corrected, and Margret now receives full credit for her role in developing the stories.
Margret and her husband moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1963, in a house close to Harvard Square. Following her husband's death in 1977, Margret continued writing, and in 1979, became a Professor of Creative Writing at Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts. Starting in 1980, she also began to collaborate with Alan Shalleck on a series of short films featuring Curious George and more than two dozen additional books.
In 1989 Margret Rey established the Curious George Foundation to help creative children and prevent cruelty to animals. In 1996, she made major donations to the Boston Public Library and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. She was also a long-time supporter of the Longy School of Music. The Reys spent twenty summers in Waterville Valley, New Hampshire, to enable H.A. Rey to better observe the stars for his astronomy writing. They became an integral part of the Waterville community and their legacy is honored by The Margret and H.A. Rey Center and the Curious George Cottage located there.
Dr. Lena Y. de Grummond, a professor in the field of library science (specializing in children's literature) at The University of Southern Mississippi in Hattiesburg, Miss. contacted the Reys in 1966 about the university's new children's literature collection. H.A. and Margret made a donation of a pair of sketches at the time. In 1996, after Margret's death, it was revealed in her will that the entire literary estate of the Reys were to be donated to the de Grummond Children's Literature Collection at Southern Miss.
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
June 3, 2021
Being an aunt and reading stories to my niece and nephew is one of the best things ever. Doesn't even matter that I've read every story in here at least four times, it's special each and every time.
August 2, 2013
I had never read Curious George stories before now. A friend gave this book to Hugh for his 2nd birthday (July 2013) and he absolutely loves it. He always wants to read it, and I have to confess that while it's a nice change, and it's good that he enjoys so many actual stories (as opposed to books that list things, as a lot of baby and toddler books do, for building vocabulary), I'm not as in love with Curious George as my son is.
There are eight stories in this edition, which are:
Curious George and the Firefighters (2004)
Curious George at the Aquarium (2007)
Curious George's Dinosaur Discovery (2006)
Curious George's First Day of School (2005)
Curious George and the Pizza Party (2010)
Curious George at the Baseball Game (2006)
Curious George at the Parade (1999)
Curious George Plants a Tree (2009)
The stories are very cute, and if you're as new to Curious George as I am I'll give you the basic gist of it: Every story starts of more-or-less the same way: "This is George. He was a good little monkey and always very curious." The second thing the first page always shares is that he is with "his friend the man with the yellow hat" (in fact his friend wears all yellow but we won't split hairs). George is not just curious: he acts on his curiosity. He wants to learn and discover and understand and experience things, but of course he always causes a big mess or a ruckus or chaos and angers people. Then the story takes a turn with George coming out the hero or helpful or super fun etc., and everyone loves him at the end. That's the formula of each story, and it's quite fascinating to see how many times that story line can be played out without sounding too repetitious!
There is variety among the stories, though, and some of the stories have extra morals, messages or meanings beyond George redeeming himself. "George Plants a Tree" has a clear environmental message, and at the baseball game he helps a little lost boy find his father. Speaking of that story, it's my least favourite to read to the kids. I've never been to a baseball game and the only thing I know about it is that it's modelled after cricket, which means that I don't know enough to explain the terminology or to fake enthusiasm for it, so I try to avoid reading that one! "Curious George's First Day of School" is quite fun, and of course the kids love the Pizza Party story! Many of the stories contain puns and little jokes that only older kids or adult readers will get, but for younger toddlers the illustrations themselves are enough to engage them.
I'm a little confused over who wrote these stories. Each one is illustrated by someone (or several someones) different, with the credit reading "Illustrated in the style of H.A. Rey by Anna Grossnickle Hines", for instance (in the case of "Curious George and the Firefighters"). There's no author credit given, though. The original creators are Margret Rey and her husband, HA Rey, who illustrated them, but in no way does this edition say that she wrote these stories. Yet it doesn't say who did! The publisher owns the copyright on the stories, which usually means they hired a ghost writer to pen them, but I don't know for sure. (I'd look it up but I'm really exhausted and pressed for time! If anyone knows the story behind these stories, do please let me know.)
There are eight stories in this edition, which are:
Curious George and the Firefighters (2004)
Curious George at the Aquarium (2007)
Curious George's Dinosaur Discovery (2006)
Curious George's First Day of School (2005)
Curious George and the Pizza Party (2010)
Curious George at the Baseball Game (2006)
Curious George at the Parade (1999)
Curious George Plants a Tree (2009)
The stories are very cute, and if you're as new to Curious George as I am I'll give you the basic gist of it: Every story starts of more-or-less the same way: "This is George. He was a good little monkey and always very curious." The second thing the first page always shares is that he is with "his friend the man with the yellow hat" (in fact his friend wears all yellow but we won't split hairs). George is not just curious: he acts on his curiosity. He wants to learn and discover and understand and experience things, but of course he always causes a big mess or a ruckus or chaos and angers people. Then the story takes a turn with George coming out the hero or helpful or super fun etc., and everyone loves him at the end. That's the formula of each story, and it's quite fascinating to see how many times that story line can be played out without sounding too repetitious!
There is variety among the stories, though, and some of the stories have extra morals, messages or meanings beyond George redeeming himself. "George Plants a Tree" has a clear environmental message, and at the baseball game he helps a little lost boy find his father. Speaking of that story, it's my least favourite to read to the kids. I've never been to a baseball game and the only thing I know about it is that it's modelled after cricket, which means that I don't know enough to explain the terminology or to fake enthusiasm for it, so I try to avoid reading that one! "Curious George's First Day of School" is quite fun, and of course the kids love the Pizza Party story! Many of the stories contain puns and little jokes that only older kids or adult readers will get, but for younger toddlers the illustrations themselves are enough to engage them.
I'm a little confused over who wrote these stories. Each one is illustrated by someone (or several someones) different, with the credit reading "Illustrated in the style of H.A. Rey by Anna Grossnickle Hines", for instance (in the case of "Curious George and the Firefighters"). There's no author credit given, though. The original creators are Margret Rey and her husband, HA Rey, who illustrated them, but in no way does this edition say that she wrote these stories. Yet it doesn't say who did! The publisher owns the copyright on the stories, which usually means they hired a ghost writer to pen them, but I don't know for sure. (I'd look it up but I'm really exhausted and pressed for time! If anyone knows the story behind these stories, do please let me know.)
September 10, 2012
I love Curious George and the predicaments he gets himself into. This is a nice eclectic collection of adventures, though the one about planting a tree is a little bit preachy. Looking forward to sharing these!
July 25, 2025
My 2.5 year old is a big fan of Curious George stories, and has been for a good year now. They are one of the staples she always goes back to on the bookshelf. Every story starts about the same and follows George as he causes some type of minor (but fun!) chaos. The only story in this compilation that I don't love is "Plants a Tree", which comes off a bit preachy and doesn't quite follow the normal "Curious George" formula. In typical form, though, my least favorites are some of my toddler's favorites--so what do I know!
September 29, 2025
We are so proud of you for reading about Curious George! You learned something really special - that being curious and asking questions helps you discover amazing things. Just like George, you can explore the world around you, but remember to be safe and ask mommy and daddy when you're not sure about something. George shows us that making mistakes is okay because that's how we learn and grow. You tried so hard reading this book, and we love seeing you become such a wonderful reader. Keep being curious, sweet girl!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 8, 2019
Can’t go wrong with Curious George. Although the original stories are a bit harsher, these newer versions are more kid friendly with less negative imagery (such as hunters and prisons).
January 16, 2021
George was a good little monkey and always very curious.
February 4, 2022
A compilation of eight wonderful stories about George doing bad/silly/illegal things.
July 1, 2023
A great collection of stories with my ratings being 4 or 5 stars. I love the variety… not to mention the smell of the book!
September 4, 2023
"in the style of" the original authors :(
January 13, 2021
(4☆ Would recommend)
Curious George is such a great classic! My son loves the show as well as the books. The length of the stories are perfect for young kids.
Curious George is such a great classic! My son loves the show as well as the books. The length of the stories are perfect for young kids.
April 13, 2019
We love Curious George books!
January 7, 2014
I plunged into 2014 without paying proper tribute to the book I probably revisited the most in 2013 - and one of the ones that will linger most forcefully and fondly in my memories. Sure, I loved The Orphan Master's Son as much as everyone else and I was rent asunder by Wave and many others, but I read them only once apiece. Night after night, I returned to George. There are many possible entry points into the land of yellow hats, but this is one of the landmark efforts - and if this "Stories to Share" collection is the "IV" of the George oeuvre, then surely "Curious George and the Pizza Party" is its "Stairway to Heaven." Even once you know the formula by heart, even after you've been subjected to countless lesser knockoffs, it retains its poetic power.
"George had never been to a pizza party before, but he loved parties AND he loved pizza... so he knew it had to be good."
That's the first proper book passage my daughter ever memorized and recited. No Shakespearean couplet could compete with it for my affection.
"George had never been to a pizza party before, but he loved parties AND he loved pizza... so he knew it had to be good."
That's the first proper book passage my daughter ever memorized and recited. No Shakespearean couplet could compete with it for my affection.
October 27, 2016
Our third collection of George's "new" adventures. Since these are well above my son's level, I'm sure we will be revisiting them plenty over the next few years. George and toddlers really share a lot of common ground which is why I think I'm enjoying these much more than I thought I would. Curiosity, exploration, and mischievousness are the name of the game in our house right now, so it's familiar territory to watch George get in and out of trouble. He never means to wreak so much havoc and always does his best to make things right. So yes, basically, George is a toddler!
March 5, 2014
my son and I loved this book for our Curious Gorge collection. It was funny, imaginative, and very cute. We love how the monkey George always seems to find trouble and then always seems to do good to make up for it. I loved the pizza one best, me and my son cook a lot. So it was a relatable tale. The dinosaur story is a great way to introduce dinosaurs to your little one. All the stories are great but those two stood out.
May 3, 2013
They are not original but he loves them.
January 6, 2015
what can i say but "Lovely,lovely,lovely."
February 12, 2023
5 Stars! Great short stories for kids. Enjoy!
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews