Curious George Discovers Germs by Erica Zappy - OPTIONAL

Zappy, Erica  Curious George Discovers Germs  Illustrated by Peter Hirsch  Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2015.  $6.99  PICTURE BOOK  Content: G.   

Curious George comes down with an illness and while he is sleeping, he dreams of going inside his body to check out the germs.  He finds germs having a rock party in his nose and George gets rid of them through a sneeze.  The man in the yellow hat gets sick next, and George takes care of him and then goes on a journey into the man’s stomach to see his germs.  When the man sneezes onto his hands he almost passes his sickness onto a friend, but that friend washes her hands.   

Curious George goes on a journey to learn more about germs, but it seemed a bit out there.  There are side bars throughout the book that explain more about germs and what the body is doing during an illness, but to stop and read the side bars takes away from the story and after the third side bar, my kids asked me to skip them.  It is a good idea, but it didn’t work very well with George as the character—it felt more like a Magic School Bus book, but not as well done.   

EL (K-3)-OPTIONAL.  Reviewer, C. Peterson.