Tuesday, August 30, 2016

Celebrate Curiosity Day By Getting Into Trouble



How will you spend Curiosity Day?

Never heard of it?  Are you curious to learn more?

September 17 is an annual celebration of being curious.  This year it’s the Saturday closest to H.A. Rey’s birthday.  Rey co-created a monumental children’s classic, Curious George.  In fact this is the 75th anniversary of the historic publishing of the curious little monkey.

Houghton Mifflin, the long-time publisher to Margaret and Hans Augusta Rey, said it’s celebrating the brand’s diamond jubilee with the publishing of an anniversary edition of the original book, and a new collection of seven stories, the Complete Adventures of Curious George.

The original seven-volume series that began in 1941 has grown to 133 titles in 26 languages.  Publishers Weekly reports there are 75 million Curious George books in print.

The Reys fled Paris, France in June 1940 during a bloody period of World War II.  They left just before the Nazis invaded.  They took with them five manuscripts, one about a French monkey for a book originally titled The Adventures of Fifi.

Let me just say for the record that Curious George is my all-time favorite children’s book character.  Sure he has his rivals, including Cat in the Hat, but this good little monkey who is always very curious, has always stolen my heart.  He embodies exactly what we should all be -- curious daredevils who ignore authority but manage to find a way to save the day.

The American Booksellers Association promoted a summer reading campaign that was inspired by the ever-seeking monkey with its theme of “Get Curious about Reading."  There was a Curious George tour, created in conjunction with the American Children's Museum and the Ultimate Block Party.  I didn’t seek a comment from the inquisitive animal for this story, but no doubt he’d probably answer me with questions, contorted stares, and a sneaky smile.

I raised my kids to snack on Curious George books.  I think they would also say he was one of their favorite book characters.  Why not?  He10 Proven Ways to Generate PR For Your Book honors the part of us that wants to touch the stove to see if it’s hot.  He’s mischievous, but not malicious.  He wants to help, not harm, but he always seems to get into trouble and cause a ruckus.

We should celebrate Curiosity Day by reading Curious George and by unleashing the inner-seeker within each of us.

To learn more on how to promote books, read my greatest blog posts from the past five years and 2,000 posts:

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Book Marketing & Book PR Toolkit: 2013


Brian Feinblum’s views, opinions, and ideas expressed in this blog are his alone and not that of his employer. You can follow him on Twitter @theprexpert and email him at brianfeinblum@gmail.com. He feels more important when discussed in the third-person. This is copyrighted by BookMarketingBuzzBlog 2016 ©.

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