The Journey that Saved Curious George - Review

Borden, Louise. The Journey that Saved Curious George. The True Wartime Escape of Margaret and H. A. Rey. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2005.

This book was a very interesting biographical tale into the complete lives of Margaret and H.A. Rey which payed special attention to their escape from Europe during the second world war. The book's title relates to the fact that the Rey's carried the Curious George manuscripts with them as the fled, although the story was called "The Adventures of Fifi" at the time.

The author of this book is not a direct Jewish insider, however, she did exquisitely thorough research into the Rey's lives and incorporated their personal journals, letters, photographs, illustrations, and manuscripts into this text. She also visited many of the places along the Rey's path through Europe and spoke with many who knew them well. The imagery in this book adds exponentially to the story being told. Although much of the imagery came from the personal estate of the Reys, the additional illustrator was able to maintain a Rey-ish form of illustration that flawlessly meshed into the surrounding text.

The book provides vast details into the lives and journeys of the Margaret and H.A. Rey that were unknown to many before this publishing. One interesting part of the text is that their last name was not originally Rey it was Reyersbach, but Hans changed it because his friends in Rio de Janeiro had difficulty pronouncing it. This text is very informative, however, slightly difficult to read. The author tried to share the biographies in a story-like manner that did not seem to work well. There were sentences that stuck out and had very little support in the rest of the text. For instance, Borden notes that Hans bought two newspapers one day, but then never says why this is significant enough to include in this book. Some of the text is also italicized but no explanation is given as to why. I was curious as to whether these were the thoughts of Mr. or Mrs. Rey or of the author directly. Furthermore, though the text followed a chronological pattern, it was often difficult to read flowingly.

This book did not focus heavily on the Jewish-ness of the Reys, but more so on the lives of two extraordinary people who have had a huge impact on the world especially in and through the realm of children's literature. Thus, the story of the Reys can be looked upon in a very positive manner by all who read it. Although the intent of the book was to provide a positive look into the lives of the Reys, I feel that it may have sugar-glossed over the devastating issues and impacts of the war the Reys survived. I do appreciate that the Nazis were not directly mentioned as being monsters as I have found is the case in many texts regarding World War II. Considering the positive and accurate portrayals of Jewish and other people within this text, I feel it can be considered a piece of quality diverse children's literature.

I also appreciated the text to self connections that could be made while reading this book. As a child, I was always a fan of Curious George and my experiences in schools tell me that the newer generations are also fans. This may be in part due to the motion picture that was made, but the children are still reading the books. Reading this text may encourage students considering a dream of theirs, like writing for example, to push forward and attempt their goals against all obstacles. If the Reys can do it, so can everyone else.