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The career of Margaret Rey, who died last weekend in Cambridge, Mass., at age 90, exemplifies the delightful mysteries in the literary tastes of children.
The many books she wrote with her husband, illustrator H.A. Rey, about the rascal monkey Curious George, whose nosiness always gets him into trouble, were disdained by sophisticated critics, and by more than a few parents. One adult who heard of Margaret Rey's death called the "Curious George" books "the stupidest books ever written for kids."
But children so loved the books (as they did those by that other deplored superstar, Dr. Seuss) that more than 50 million were printed since the first in the series, "Curious George," appeared in 1941. There were seven books in the series, including "Curious George Learns the Alphabet" and "Curious George Goes to the Hospital."
The Reys' own adventures rivaled those of...