The Journey that saved Curious George by Louise Borden

Borden, Louise, and Allan Drummond. The journey that saved Curious George: the true wartime escape of Margret and H.A. Rey. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2005. Print.

Non-fiction, Social Studies

AGES: Scholastic Grade Level Equivalent 6.4, 950L

SUMMARY:
Margret and H.A. Rey are not only the creators of one of the bestselling children’s series Curious George but also have quite an interesting story when it comes to how they created Curious George (The Adventures of Fifi). The Journey that saved Curious George pieces together the tale of how Margret and H.A. Rey fled their Paris home in 1940 carrying the manuscripts of Curious George to the United States. This story is perfect for the classroom as it combines many primary sources including Han Rey’s pocket diaries and many pictures from the time.

VOCABULARY:
WWII, Hitler, Manuscript, Publishers, editors, primary source, visa/passport, tandem velo

TEACHING STRATEGIES: (read a loud, start a lesson about various topics in history)
Before: KWL about WWII. Discuss primary sources and what they are and then show throughout the novel how they are used. This book really has great ties to history. Also, talk about how these ordinary people wrote the classic story Curious George, ties the book to the students.

During: Map out where they travel, from Brazil to France to Paris to Germany. As they read have them pay attention to what they know about Curious George and what pieces of Margret and H.A. Rey's life made it into the Curious George novels.

After: Go over how Margret and H.A. Rey witnessed history and tie it into Hitler. When they were running away for example it was June 14, 1940 in Paris was when Hitler’s third Reich replaced the French flag with swastikas. . Give a small writing prompt where they create a journal entry about how they might be feeling running away from all that they know like Margret and H.A. Rey.

ONLINE RESOURCES:
http://www.houghtonmifflinbooks.com/features/cgsite/journey_lp.shtml- great lesson plans related to the novel.
http://www.pbs.org/perilousfight/timeline/- interactive WWII timeline
http://thereycenter.org/Welcome.html- The Rey Center, located in New Hampshire, possible field trip?, lots of resources