This came from the inside of one of my Curious George Calendars: Since his first appearance in the 1940s, Curious George has been a favorite childhood friend for kids around the world. The little monkey with a lot of curiosity did everything children were tempted to do--riding through the city on top of a bus and getting tangled in a giant pot of spaghetti. Luckily his friend, the man in the yellow hat, was there to help him out of his scrapes. And even though being curious got George in a lot of trouble, he always made friends along the way.

As with many of our most beloved illustrated characters, Curious George, came to us almost by accident. His creators, H.A. and Margret Rey, were living in Montamarte, France when they began doing sketches of a giraffe for a French newspaper. The publishers liked the original drawings so much they asked them to work on a children's book. The result was Cecily G. And it was here that we saw Curious George for the first time.













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The Reys had already written the first Curious George book when they were forced to flee Paris in 1940. After arriving safely in the United States with the manuscript intact, the Reys had it published by Houghton Mifflin in 1941. Since then, Curious George has been printed in Japanese, French, Afrikaans, Portuguese, Swedish, German, Spanish, Chinese, Danish, and Norwegian. Quite a lot of rone small mischevious monkey! It seems certain that Curious George will monkey his way into the hearts of children, and adults, around the world for many generations to come.