2 stars
Honestly, this one just kind of stressed me out.
I’ll start by saying I’m not the biggest fan of Curious George. Growing up, I always hated the old-school books where George would mess everything up and not get in trouble (or sometimes even be rewarded for his bad behavior). Even as a child, all of his messes gave me anxiety.
I’ve found a few of the newer books based on the show to be a little better such as Curious George Good Night, Zoo (I check out a decent amount of them from the library because I work with a young George fan). This one, not so much.
In this book, George and his friend Allie break the man with the yellow hat’s guitar. Stress levels are rising already. The solution? Making a new guitar. I understand the idea of it, but they still broke the guitar and don’t even apologize. Also, I’m all about upcycling, but in the process of making the new guitar, they just break a bunch of other stuff. At the end, everyone is happy and no one mentions the fact that two kids just went around taking things without asking and breaking them while not even being told by any adult that maybe next time they should ask or go to an adult when they accidentally break something. I feel like there was a learning opportunity that was completely ignored.
Cute pictures based on the show. The writing was fine, just not the biggest fan of the actual story and the subtle messages that come across.
At the end of the book is a little activity for making your own upcycled instrument, which is a cute idea and I like that it ties into the story (although I was definitely not a fan of the story).