The Complete Adventures of Curious George (25 page)

The man took a big pad and began to draw. George was curious.

"This is an A," the man said. "The A is the first letter of the alphabet."

A

Now we add four feet and a long tail—
and the A becomes an ALLIGATOR
with his mouth wide open.
The word ALLIGATOR starts with an A.
This is a big A. There is also a small a.
All letters come in big and in small.

This is a small a

It looks like a piece of an apple.

George knew alligators and apples.
You could eat apples. Alligators could
eat you if you didn't watch out.

This is a big B

The big B looks like a BIRD if we put feet on it and
a tail and a BILL. The word BIRD begins with a B.
BIRDS come in all colors. This BIRD is BLUE.
George loved to watch BIRDS.

This is a small b
It could be a bee.

This bee is busy buzzing around a blossom.
The bee's body has black and yellow stripes.
George kept away from bees.
They might sting, and that would be bad.

This is a big C

We will make it into a CRAB—
a big CRAB,
with a shell, and feet, and two CLAWS.

This is a small c
The small c is like the big C, only smaller,

so it becomes a small crab. It's cute.
Crabs live in the ocean.
They can swim or run sidewise and backwards.
Crabs can be funny, but they can also pinch you.

"You now have three
letters, George," the man said,
"A and B and C. With these three letters
you can make a WORD, the first word

you can read yourself. The word is

C A B

c a b

You know what a cab is. I once took you
for a ride in a cab, remember? And now
let's draw the next letter."

The big D
could be a DINOSAUR.

There are no live DINOSAURS TODAY,
they have DIED out.
Those you see in museums are DUMMIES.
George had seen DINOSAURS in a museum once.

The small d
looks like a dromedary.

A dromedary is a camel with one hump.
Riding on a dromedary can make you dizzy because
it goes up and down—up and down—up and down.

desert