The H. A. Rey Treasury of Stories

'The H.A. Rey Treasury of Stories' is a good introduction for people who only know his work from the Curious George series. The works included here are all fairly silly and I think young kids would love them.

In 'Tit For Tat' we get a lesson in doing unto others as we'd have them do to us. We see things like a carriage driver and a horse change places on Uncle Appleface's TURN-A-VISION SET. We also see other humans and animals changing places like storks and humans or dogs walking humans.

In 'Elizabite' we meet an adorable little carnivorous plant that soon grows up to be a little more than her owner and a hapless burglar can handle.

In 'Billy's Picture' all Billy Bunny wants to do is draw a picture of himself, but all his animal friends come along and add their particular "improvements" to the picture to a very comical to us and distressing to Billy effect.

'Zebrology' shows one way that zebras may have gotten their stripes in a wordless story. Adults will get some of the humor that will go over most kid's heads.

The art is very familiar looking to those who love Curious George. The pictures are colorful with lots of use of the primary tones. The drawings are playful and friendly and downright silly at times, and I think the book would get lots of giggles from young readers. I enjoyed reading this ebook.

I received a review copy of this ebook from Dover Publications and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this fun ebook.

Four wordless illustrates tales from the author of Curious George. I was intrigued.

The tales vary in quality and enjoyment for me, though each is clever. I think my son would need to be older to appreciate them, he's four and these are a little complex and clever for him. The style of illustration is familiar if you know Curious George: bright, bold colours in cartoon-style humorous drawings.

Each tale is clever enough for an adult to enjoy. The first, Tit for Tat, was my own favourite. A boy laughs at a tortoise upside down and struggling and is taught a lesson by being shown situations with humans in positions of servitude or powerless to animals - pulling carriages full of horses, stuck in mouse traps, singing in cages.

Elizabite, Adventures of a Carnivorous Plant concerns an 'Audrey II-like' plant whose appetite for unusual food grows as she does. Very funny as her bite does prove useful...

The third story I didn't really like, or think it fitted the Kindle format well, the pages didn't seem to fit my screens (tried on iPhone and Hudl) very well. It didn't make a lot of sense to me. Billy's Picture is about a group of animals trying to draw a picture and not really agreeing on what it should look like.

And Zebrology shows a Just So Story-like episode of white and black horses coming together to make zebras. Almost an example of (slightly skewed) evolution.

Interesting selection. Very brief so I would buy when the price is right.

Review of a NetGalley advance copy.

I totally fell in love with this book. I've read Curious George books hundreds of times, but I've never seen any of these. They're fun and have cheerful, silly illustrations that the kids will love. This is on the top of my to-buy list.. Everyone should read this one!

Quite a charming collection of wordless stories that are beautifully illustrated. Nice addition for fans of Curious George.

Of the four stories in this collection, I only remember seeing "Elizabite" before. Elizabite is a carnivorous plant. A botanist discovers her and digs her up to take to his laboratory (getting his fingers bitten in the process). Things do not go much better at the lab. Elizabite chomps on the dog's tail, tries to do the same to the maid, and grabs a professor by the beard. But after a run-in with a burglar one night, a happy and safe location is found for this hungry plant and her little sprouts. The illustrations that show the dog running across the room with his tail bandaged as the maid wanders too close to the plant, or the maid and the dog peeking around the corner as the professor leans in for a closer look are funny details that readers will enjoy.

"Tit for Tat" tells the story of Matt and his uncle, Angus. Matt teases his pet turtle by turning him onto his back, knowing he can't roll over in his shell. Angus uses his invention, the Turn-a-vision set, to show Matt how it fells to be on the receiving end of unfair treatment. He tells him, "you should not do to others anything you don't want them to do to you." The scenes are funny - horses sitting in carriages pulled by humans, dogs walking humans on leashes and pulling them away before they can greet their friends, etc. But they use humor to make a point about following the Golden Rule.

"Billy's Picture" is about a rabbit named Billy that is drawing a picture, but before he can finish, a friend comes along and adds a detail. Then another friend makes an addition to the picture, then another, and another. By the time they are all finished helping, it is a drawing of the oddest looking creature you have ever seen. It has an elephant's trunk, a porcupine's quills, and other features from each of the different animals that contributed to the picture. Billy bursts into tears because he only wanted to draw a self-portrait, not some odd mutant thing. But they do come up with a good solution to the problem.

"Zebrology" is the last story in the book and it is wordless. It shows two horses meet, one white and one black. Then there are two young horses, each half white and half black. Then more young ones that have large stripes and so on, until there are a herd of zebras grazing where there were once two horses of different colors. I've probably been teaching elementary school too long, but I think it would be a good visual to how kids how multiplying fractions gets you smaller and smaller fractions.

As much time as I have spent in libraries and bookstores over the last few years, you would think I would be more familiar with these stories. It seems like a good thing that this collection is being published, so that all these stories are not lost to everyone's memory.

My son and I loved reading the adventures of Curious George so much that when I saw this book, I couldn't wait to read it. It contains some really funny material and I laughed over and over again as I turned the pages.

The book contains four stories, each with an illustration on every page. My favorite; Tit for Tat,has horses riding in carriages drawn by men and women, fish catching humans, cows lassoing cowboys, and dogs walking people. The other stories are also funny and they will be enjoyed by children and grown-ups alike.

This is a perfect gift for any fan of H A Rey and I recommend it.

To my surprise, these stories were not at all like the Curious George series. Still nicely illustrated, these were shorter stories.

My daughter's favorite story in this four story collection was Billy's Picture which had her giggling aloud. We both agreed that Elizabite was our least favorite.

How many people who are readers today did NOT read the Curious George books when they were young? Not too many, I would guess. But how many of you are aware that the creator(s) of Curious George wrote and illustrated other children's stories as well? The H.A. Rey Treasury of stories features four short, illustrated stories for children by H.A. and Margaret Rey.

The first story, "Tit for Tat," is a short little parable to get children to be kind to animals by turning the tables. If offers a 'what if/do unto others' idea. For instance, first we see a horse pulling a carriage and then we see a human pulling the same carriage, with the horse riding. It actually gets a little 'dark' as we see a mouse caught in a mouse trap and then a woman with her hands caught in an over-seized mouse trap while a crowd of mice cheer in the tit for tat. There's also a fox wearing a human stole and a caged man singing for canaries. The point is definitely delivered with some pretty strong images.

The second story, "Elizabite: Adventures of a Carnivorous Plant," reminds me of a child's version of "Little Shop of Horrors" in which a small carnivorous plant has a habit of biting people and pets that get too close. It does manage to foil a robbery by nearly eating a burglar. To protect the plant, and the people around it, it is finally put in a zoo.

Just like "Tit for Tat," "Elizabite" tends to be just a bit on the dark side. For those of us who grew up with Grimm's and Andersen's fairy tales, dark is just a part of story-telling. In today's politically correct world, these might not fare quite as well.

The third story is a bit smoother and kinder. In "Billy's Picture" a little rabbit, Billy, is wanting to paint a picture of himself. Along comes a friend, a puppy, who adds to the painting, but the painting looks like a cross between a rabbit and a dog. Then comes a goose, who also adds to the picture, but the picture becomes a cross, now, of a goose and a dog, and a rabbit. This story is simple and goes on and on with a new animal coming in and changing the picture each time, until it is completely unrecognizable. Finally Billy gets angry and tells everyone that all he wanted was to paint a self-portrait. The story ends happily, with everyone painting their own self-portrait.

The final story is my favorite. "Zebrology" is a story without words, about the history of how zebras came to be. It's delightful, cute, humorous, and precisely the sort of story I would have loved as a child (I would have gotten to make up my own story to go with the pictures) and would have eagerly read to my children.

This feels a little thin to be called a 'treasury' but the four short stories within are delightful throwbacks to a very different era in children's picture books, and aside from the historical interest and the curiosity point of view, these stories could still be read to, and be entertaining to, children.

Looking for a good book? The H. A. Rey Treasury of Stories is a nice look at some of the other works for children by the creator of Curious George -- some a little 'dark' but all of them entertaining.

I receive a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

A fun collection of timeless stories!

This is amazing. I need to read more stories by the Rey’s that aren’t about that infamous monkey. I had no expectations going into this so I was pleasantly surprised by all that it had to offer. It had their trademark charm that is instantly recognisable as their own. I can see myself revisiting this in the future.

Also, if you’re wondering how Zebra’s came to be then I would suggest giving this a go.

These are great tales with wonderful morals! They definitely inspire conversation among children and the illustrations are fun for children of all ages!

Humorous fare for children. Endearing illustrations from the creators of "Curious George," A welcome addition to children's book collections. The contributions of H.A. and Margaret Rey to children's literature and their amazing personal story deserves a wider audience. Five stars.