But the challenges of adapting Curious George are in fact a bit more complex. Earnest literary types have interpreted the first book as a barely disguised slave narrative. Have you considered that the man’s weird outfit could be a send-up of a colonial officer’s uniform? Or that George is brown and lacks a tail? (Lots of monkeys are brown and most species have visible tails.) Or that he is abducted against his will from Africa and brought across the sea to a foreign land where he engages in high jinks when the master is away?

This interpretation–surely the subject of many half-baked teacher-college lectures–was not on the mind of the Reys as they fled from the Nazis. Perhaps it is helpful to remember something that Margret once said of her books: “I don’t like messages. . . . These are just stories.” Curious George Goes to Hollywood by John J. Miller

OK, that’s it. I am declaring a moratorium on listening to any adults who presume to read adult meanings and prejudices into picture books. The Little House by Virginia Lee Burton is NOT an agrarian tract. Drummer Hoff by Barbara Emberly does NOT teach children to glorify war. And Curious George is a book about a curious monkey and his friend, not about a slave and his master. George is a monkey, and the theme of the books, if there is one, is curiosity and how too much of it sometimes leads to trouble. If you see subversive plot elements or themes in this or other commonly enjoyed picture books, you probably brought them with you. And the children won’t pick up on any of these “half-baked teacher college” ideas, or if they do, if ill intent or preaching outweighs the fun of the story, the children will quit listening. Good, popular picture books have good pictures (Duh!) and tell good stories.

Keep your re-interpreting hands off my picture books.

HT: Camille at Book Moot