More than 75 million copies of Curious George books have been sold worldwide. Curious George has been translated into many languages, including Yiddish, Afrikaans, Braille, Japanese, French, Portuguese, Swedish, German, Chinese, Danish, and Norwegian.
Curious George first appeared in Cecily G. and the Nine Monkeys, which was published in France in 1939. He was called Fifi in those editions. Hans Rey first saw his future wife, Margret, at a party in her father’s home in Germany, where she was sliding down the banister. When Curious George was published in 1941, King George was the king of England. So as not to be disrespectful to the king by associating him with a monkey, Curious George was called Zozo in England.
