Gift Wrap Included: Merry Christmas, Curious George (text) by Cathy Hapka

For the last minute shopper, it's Curious George to the rescue. Actually, it's Margret and H. A. Rey's Merry Christmas, Curious George! (Curious George), all dressed up for the holiday season. Like a sort of picture book Super Man, this one's dust jacket reverses to become--tah dah!--its own gift wrap! (No phone booth needed.)

Gimmicks aside, this one is a better than average holiday adaptation of the timeless adventures of our favorite little monkey. In this tale, George goes along with the man in the yellow hat to select a Christmas tree. Curious as always, he wanders out of sight to climb the largest evergreen on the lot and hiding in its branches, gets trucked downtown with the tree to the Children's Hospital, familiar territory for George, who paid two visits to this institution in his original career.

At the hospital George scoots away, exploring and pilfering medical gear, until he spots the tree now mounted and surrounded by gifts, ready to be decorated. Making the best of the situation, George improvises Christmas tree ornaments out of X-rays, books, clipboards, stethoscopes, and crutches, all hung from a long strip of gauze encircling the tree. Just as he jumbles up the gift tags on the presents, the familiar-looking kids from Curious George Goes to the Hospital arrive in the playroom for their Christmas party, where they discover a naughty little monkey climbing a weird but intriguing Christmas tree. The nurse snatches up George and various administrators tsk-tsk at the scene, but the kids insist that George stay for the party, and when the man in the yellow hat finally tracks him down, he's just in time to help George place the final star on top of the tree.

The illustrations by Mary O'Keefe Young lean heavily on the characterizations, poses, and period paraphernalia from the original Curious George Goes to the Hospital and carry the load for this light-weight tale. Still, George, with his childlike gung-ho optimism, is such an engaging character that the whole story makes a fine Christmas addition to the Curious George canon.