Curious George Goes to the Hospital is the seventh and final book in the original Curious George series written and illustrated by Margret Rey and H. A. Rey and published by Houghton Mifflin in 1966. The book was written to ease the way for hospital-bound children.
Plot[]
George wakes up one day to find a box on the desk. Upon opening it, he pulls out a colorful jigsaw puzzle piece. The puzzle had about two dozen pieces (24 pieces altogether). (On the first page, the narration reads, "Today, George was curious about the big box which was found on the Man's desk".)
Upon seeing the "surprise", he is at first unaware it is a puzzle. That is, until he opens the box. (The narration of the page reads, "What could be in the box? George could not resist. He simply had to open it".)
When George opened the box, the box was full of items that were in many different colors. Now he new for sure that the little items were puzzle pieces. (The narration of the page next reads, "It was full of funny little pieces and had all sorts of shapes and all sorts of colors".)
George took one puzzle piece out. He mistakenly believes that the piece is candy. (That is, as the narration of the page, reads, "George took one out. It looked like a piece of candy".) Maybe it was candy. And maybe he could eat it. George put the piece in his mouth. And he inadvertently eats it. Before he knew it, he had swallowed it. (That is, as the following narrative page reads, "Maybe it was candy. Maybe he could eat it. George put the puzzle piece in his mouth. And before he knew it, he had swallowed it".)
Later, The Man with the Yellow Hat comes home and discovers that George has already opened the puzzle and tells George that the jigsaw puzzle was a surprise for him. Then they both proceed to work on it.
Finally, the puzzle was finished. Well, almost finished. Unfortunately, even though the puzzle might look finished, the last piece is missing. (That is, as the narration page reads, "Finally, the puzzle was finished. Well, almost finished. One piece was missing".)
Then they try to find the missing piece. The man states that it is pretty odd that the last piece of the puzzle is lost. And he states, "It is a brand new puzzle". But he says, "Well, it can't be helped". So they give up for the night and head to bed.
The next morning, George did not feel well. Because he has a stomachache (from the puzzle piece that he swallowed). And he did not want to eat his breakfast. (That is, as the narration of the page reads, "The next morning, George did not feel well. He had a tummy ache and did not want to eat his breakfast".) So the Man calls the doctor (Dr. Baker).
The doctor comes in and then examines him. When the doctor cannot find the problem (as he turns out to be no help), he recommends that the man should take George to the hospital.
The Man reassures George at the hospital, reminding him of being here before when he broke his leg (referencing a previous story). Upon arrival at the hospital, a nurse takes George and The Man back, gives George something to drink. It is a medicine called barium. Then George is put on the x-ray table. The doctor put on an apron and also gave the Man an apron. George was curious. But even though he thought he would get an apron too, he did not. (That is, as the narration page reads, "George was curious. Would he get an apron too? No he did not".)
The x-ray picture comes out. The picture from the x-ray shows George's body. And the picture, it shows the puzzle piece lodged and ingested in George's stomach (after he ate the puzzle piece the night before his checkup day in the hospital). When the doctor and the Man see the picture, the doctor notes that there is something there which must not be. The Man points out the answer. It was the puzzle piece which was missing from his and George's jigsaw puzzle. The missing piece was in George's stomach and so, the Man and George were not able to finish the puzzle the night before. The doctor (seeing the ingested puzzle piece) says, "At least we now know what is wrong with our little patient!". Then he explains to George and the Man how getting the puzzle piece out of his stomach is going to work. It turns out that it is a small operation.
The next page cuts to the waiting room. While George and the Man are waiting their turn, they run into a mother and her young daughter, Betsy, who is frowning, because this is her first time in a hospital and she is scared (and reluctant about the hospital too). George is then admitted to the hospital overnight, and is taken to the children's ward by a nurse named Carol, where he is given his temperature, his blood pressure, and a pill and a shot by different nurses to put him to sleep and is wheeled into surgery.
When he wakes up, he is groggy and neglects in the good news that the piece is out of him or of the book The Man has, and goes back to sleep. The nurse says that this will work, because the more he sleeps, the better.
When George wakes up the next morning, he is all better, has some ice cream, and is taken to the play room, where several children, including a still-frowning Betsy (but a little less sad though), have gathered. George meets a kid named Steve, who is in a wheelchair (called a "go-cart" in the book) with a broken leg who is going to try to walk later with his cast still on. At this point, George starts doing things that end up starting to break Betsy out of her funk. First, using all four limbs, he puts on a puppet show for the kids, which gets her to start smiling a bit. Next, he finds a record player, stands on the turntable, turns it on, and spins around faster and faster, until he flies off and luckily lands on a large pillow to cushion his landing. The kids laugh at it, and Betsy smiles again, until the nurse picks him up and takes him back to the children's ward to nap it off.
When he wakes up, all the kids and the nurse are diverted from him as Steve tries to walk. Noticing the wheelchair empty, George hops into it and wheels it out of the room. By the time the nurse notices it gone, George is already around the corner and heading down a steep ramp to the first floor right at a couple of attendants (including a mayor), pushing food carts. George luckily jumps off the wheelchair before it crashes into the carts, spilling food all over the place and damaging the dishes and wheelchair. Spinach, scrambled eggs, and strawberry jam were all over the floor. When it becomes a big mess, all the attendants complain (saying, "YOU BROKE ALL MY DISHES!", and "HE RUINED THE GO CART!"). All the kids come out to see this accident happen, and the first one to laugh at it is Betsy. This gets everyone laughing, except George who begins to cry about his accident. Betsy sees this, and runs down the ramp to console George. She eases George's pain by kissing it to make it better. And she tells him this is what finally made her smile and be happy. The adults just agree to clean up the mess and be done with it.
The adults tell George that he was not in trouble because he made Betsy happy. (That is, as one of the adults --happily-- say to George, "George? You have made a terrible mess. But you have also made our sad little Betsy happy".) And the Man arrives to take him home. As they are about to leave, the nurse runs out with a little package for George to take home.
Upon arrival home, George opens it and finds it to be the puzzle piece he swallowed, which they successfully put where it belongs to complete the picture. The Man happily says that now he and George can finish the puzzle. (That is, as the Man says, "And NOW we can finish the puzzle".) Now able to finish it, the Man puts the puzzle piece (which has a place for it in the middle). In the end, it is a picture of George in the puzzle with the Man's yellow hat. (That is, after the Man and George complete the puzzle.)
Characters[]
- George
- The Man With The Yellow Hat
- Dr. Baker
- Nurse Carol
- Betsy
- Steve
- Dave
- The Mayor
Video[]
02 Curious George Goes to the Hospital
16 mm stop-motion animated shorts were produced of two Curious George stories, Curious George and Curious George Goes to the Hospital in 1984 and 1982[1], created with puppet-figures by noted animator John Clark Matthews (who later used a similar technique for his films of Frog and Toad).