Monday, September 24, 2012

A Curious Little Monkey

Ellington has been under the weather all weekend, so I am operating on very little sleep. I just wanted to pop in with a quick post that has been on my mind for the past couple of months.
I was reading one of my little sister's favorite childhood books to Ellington a month or so ago and I was a little disturbed by the content. I mean, I know that many nursery rhymes are not exactly kid-friendly when you really look at the words / meaning, but I never thought about any of the books that I read as a child.
This one happens to be Curious George... you know, the adorable little monkey who lives with the man in the yellow hat. Harmless, right? Nope
After reading the first few pages, I was really sad to find out that this is how George came to live with the man in the yellow hat. I don't remember ever reading this part of the story. Maybe my mom skipped over it like I do (now) whenever I read it to little Miss E. I guess the author was trying to tell the truth about how monkeys usually become domesticated, but can't we just let kids live in a fantasy world a little longer before they are introduced to the harsh realities of this world.
Then, I found this illustration in another Curious George book. Smoking? Really? This is a children's book people! Okay, I do realize that this book was written and illustrated in the 1940s and things were quite a bit different back then. Still, I am not a big fan of this new image of a curious little monkey and his kidnapper that is bouncing around in my head.

Has anybody else discovered surprising revelations of their favorite childhood character since having kids?

4 comments:

  1. Here's something that will make you wonder......why does the author call CG a monkey? I'm pretty sure that most monkeys living in Africa have tails.

    Also, you and your sisters never really liked the CG stories...not sure why. Maybe you just had a feeling that George was being held against his will! :) LYMI

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  2. Haha. I never noticed that he didn't have a tail.

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  3. Just don't let her read the Rotten Ralph books---absolutely teaches a child to be an enabler. I banned them after the second one.

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  4. Never heard of Rotten Ralph, but I'll keep that in mind when E starts reading books on her own. What ever happened to harmless books like Nancy Drew? or maybe I need to reread that book too..

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