CURIOUS GEORGE VISITS AN AMUSEMENT PARK
Written: May 15 '08
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Product Rating:
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Pros: cute story
Cons: none
The Bottom Line: This is a cute Curious George story.
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| goldjay's Full Review: Margaret Rey and H. A. Rey - Curious George Visits... |
Curious George Visits an Amusement Park is a fun children’s book It is a perfect book for me to review today since we went to the amusement park yesterday! I read this book to my daughter a few years ago but I pulled it out again recently because I knew we were heading to the amusement park this past weekend. This book was adapted from the Curious George film series and was originally written and illustrated by Margaret and H.A. Rey. It was edited by Margaret Rey and Alan J Shalleck. It was published in 1988. I love Curious George and bought this book originally to share with my children.
The Story
Curious George is a monkey who is always getting into some sort of trouble. He lives with his friend, the man with the yellow hat. One nice day, they decided to head to the amusement park. When they get there, the man gives George some money to get tickets while he parks the car.
George goes to the ticket booth but finds that it is closed and there is no one inside. He finds a window that is open just big enough for a monkey to get inside so he climbs in. He pulls a lever that releases the tickets and he starts handing out tickets to everyone who comes up to the window.
The man who runs the ticket booth finally gets there and when he realizes that people are getting tickets for free, he gets very angry. George runs away and the man chases him but George is faster. He sees his friend Ruby and her grandmother on the roller coaster. The grandmother is so scared she lets her purse go and it flies up high and gets stuck. George, being a monkey, climbs up to get it for her. The ticket booth man catches up with George at this point and is still very angry. However, when Ruby’s grandmother explains that George got the purse for her and that he created the long line of people waiting at the ticket booth, the man forgives George.
George’s friend finally gets into the park and takes George, Ruby, and her grandmother for a ride on the roller coaster!
Text and Illustrations
This book has 32 numbered pages. There are approximately 10-30 words per page. The words are written in white space at the bottom of each page. The words convey the story through narrative and conversation. They are not necessarily easy reader words but they are not overly difficult either. A beginning reader could probably read most of this book. My daughter was an early reader and was able to read this book on her own at age 5.
The illustrations really show what is happening in the story. We see everything that the text is telling us in the pictures. The pictures are made of black line drawings filled in with colors. The colors are bright and vivid. There is a good amount of detail without being overly busy or distracting. Overall, I feel that the illustrations are definitely an asset to this book. The text alone would be boring.
My Thoughts
There are things about this book I like and things I do not. I do not like the fact that George ran away from the ticket man when he was about to get into trouble. I always tell my daughter that when you get into trouble, you should just admit it because you really can’t run away from trouble. However, George somehow, does run away from his trouble because he does something good in the meantime and gets forgiven for the trouble he had caused. I think that children should be learning that when they do something wrong, there is a punishment. George gets no punishment at all for the trouble he caused and I personally think that this is wrong.
I did use the incidents in this book as a chance to talk to my daughter about right and wrong. It was also a chance to remember what you should do in certain situations versus what George did in his situation. I do like that this book gives me the chance to show that there are different ways to act in any situation.
I also like that that this book is on the short side. It takes less than 10 minutes to read the whole book and look at the pictures. If you have discussions during the story it may take a little longer. I usually let my children enjoy the whole story the first time through and then discuss it afterwards.
My daughter’s favorite part of this book is when George went up and rescued Ruby’s grandmother’s purse. It was a bit scary watching him to up the roller coaster poles but he makes it safely. My son simply liked looking at the pictures and finding George in every one!
Recommendations
I would recommend this book for preschool aged children. It is okay for toddlers but they probably won’t be interested in listening to the whole story since it a little bit long for the toddler set. It is just the right length for preschoolers, however and it is fun to read about George’s adventures. My daughter found it fun and it was a good chance to be able to have discussions with her about the way to act in different situations!
Happy Reading!!
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
goldjay
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Member: Allyson
Location: Maryland
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Back from our DISNEY WORLD Vacation!! Had a BLAST!!
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