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, but gets the key from the zookeeper and escapes his cage. In the city, he enters a restaurant and is caught eating a pot of spaghetti. The cook makes him wash the dishes as punishment, but does a splendid job that the cook takes him to a friend who gives him a job as a window washer at a tall apartment building. George discovers a room being painted, and when the painters break for lunch, he sneaks in and gives it a jungle theme (even painting the furniture covers as animals). Upon their return, the painters and apartment owner chase him down the fire escape, but he breaks his leg jumping down from it onto the concrete sidewalk and 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 recover him. During that time, George gets out of his bed (his leg having recovered) 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 animal friends are seen in a theater watching at the end of the book.