Curious George Takes a Job
 First edition | |
| Author |
H. A. Rey Margret Rey |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Series | Curious George |
| Genre | Children's literature |
| Publisher | Houghton Mifflin |
Publication date | 1947 |
| Media type | |
| Preceded by | Curious George |
| Followed by | Curious George Rides a Bike |
Curious George Takes a Job is a children's book written and illustrated by Margaret Rey and H. A. Rey and published by Houghton Mifflin in 1947. It is the second of the Curious George books and tells the story of George taking a job as a window washer.
Plot
The book picks up where the first book ends. George is living in the zoo, until he gets the key from the zookeeper and escapes his cage. In the city, George enters a restaurant where he is caught eating a pot of spaghetti and forced by the cook to wash the dishes, but he does a splendid job. As a reward, the cook takes him to a friend who gives him a job as a window washer at a tall apartment building. George washes the windows until he discovers a room being painted. He sneaks in and gives it a jungle theme (even painting the furniture covers as animals) during the painters' break for lunch. Upon their return, the painters, the cook's friend (elevator man) and the apartment owner chase George down a fire escape, until he breaks his leg when he jumped down from it onto the concrete sidewalk, having mistook it for being soft as the grass in the jungle (only it was hard as stone). After the fall breaks George's leg, an ambulance comes up to take George to the hospital. The woman of the apartment told everyone how George got what he deserved, which was making her apartment room into a jungle. The elevator man also says that he knew that George would get into trouble since he is curious. As a result, he spends time in the hospital recovering. The story of him being in the hospital makes it to the local newspaper where The Man with the Yellow Hat reads it and makes a beeline to the hospital to claim him. During that time, George gets out of his bed (his leg having healed) and tampers with a bottle of ether, which knocks him out. The Man and the nurse find him this way and put him in a cold shower to wake him up, then George is taken to a movie studio to record a movie about his life, which he and all of his friends (whom he met during the story) are seen in a theater watching at the end of the book.