4 - 7 years
Caldecott Medal ( )

"This is George. He lived in Africa. He was a good little monkey, and always very curious."

Curious George: Flies a Kite, Gets a Medal, Goes to the Hospital, Rides a Bike, Takes a Job.

I have to admit that my daughter loves George. We even got her the plushy of her favorite curious monkey to go along with the tv series, and every night, she still requires us to bring down this book and have her daddy read it to her. She loves to snuggle and hug my face and say, "It's okay daddy, it's okay," whenever George jumps too far and breaks his leg or when he flies away into the great blue, getting sad because he'll never see the Man in the Yellow Hat.

Little does my daughter know, but I every time I read these pages to her, I want to slip in little things, like the Man in the Yellow Hat is actually the King in Yellow from Carcossa, and George's other name is Damian from Omen.

George was always too curious, that's why he climbed out of hell to find the King in Yellow. He was always a good little monkey. If only he wasn't so curious, he wouldn't have brought that damn book back with him to corrupt the world....

(I don't really do this to my daughter, of course, but my horror roots do make me giggle with that familiar spark of furious and never-ending desperate glee.) ( )

7 classic George stories. My Christmas present from the Hansen-Schuler family. ( )