The Journey That Saved Curious George by Louise Borden is a children's biography of the life of H.A. Rey (the author of the Curious George series) and his wife Margaret. The German born couple existed during a time of war when Hitler was taking over and causing chaos among Europe. The author and his wife escaped the violence by biking through Paris, boating to Brazil, and then finally making it to America where Curious George was finally published.
This book is interesting in that it is ultimately a biography meant for children (3rd-4th grade). It has real photographs of H.A. Rey's personal calenders, passport, and illustrations as well as illustrations to go with the story. The reader learns a lot about where Curious George started (originally called FiFi the Curious Monkey) and the author who created him.
I liked this book because I have always loved Curious George and it was cool to learn a little more about the author and story behind the series. H.A. Rey had an interesting life and I think this book would be a good one to use in a 3rd grade classroom when introducing writing and researching authors, something I remember doing at that age. The story was long but full of interesting pictures to keep the readers attention.
I would highly recommend this book to teachers as well as anyone who would like to know more about this author.
This seems like a really interesting story. Students read Curious George when they are younger so learning about the authors is a great way to bring them back to that story as they get a little bit older. Since they lived during such a crazy period of history, it's a good way to discuss those historical events. Plus it seems like they went on a pretty crazy adventure to get to America, and students can think and write about their own crazy adventure to reach a new destination. This book allows for a lot of possibilities in the classroom!
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