Roller Coaster

Curious George
adapted by Monica Perez

This is one of those newer Curious George books not written by the original author, but based on the current tv series. As ever, it's a cute story about a little monkey (or ape, see my first Curious George review) who gets into mischief. I have a problem with this one, though.

Curious George is excited to go to an amusement park with his friends. He wants to ride the roller coaster but is too short. An employee shows George how many candy sticks tall he'd have to be to ride. George tries to think of things to do that will make him grow tall faster, and after he does each activity he holds up the candy sticks again. It appears that he is indeed growing, but George finds out later that instead, the candy sticks were getting shorter (because he kept eating them). It's an interesting concept to present to a kid, and I liked that part of the book.

It was the ending that bugged me. George is understandably very disappointed that he is still too short to ride, but instead of having to wait like all kids would, or having some other solution presented (like padding to make him tall enough in the seat?) the park owner says there's a special sign to measure monkeys and lets him ride anyways. I didn't like that excuse. The reason for height requirements is for safety on the ride; technically speaking George would still be too short to fit properly in the harness or whatever. So he gets to bypass the safety rule just because he's a monkey and not a kid? It bothers me what message this might give to kids.

Rating: 2/5 ........ 22 pages, 2007