Rashmi Navalpakkam, Week 13 - Beyond Words in Our Childhood

(Image Credit: Curious George Goes to a Chocolate Factory)


There are fifteen of them - small, thinly spined, alternating between the colors of baby blue and light yellow. Almost every day, I reach for them on the top of my wooden shelf, making sure that they’re all in order and neatly organized. This is my most treasured possession - my most nostalgic book set: the most spectacular Curious George The Monkey Collection. 


It’s amazing how books, especially the ones we read in our childhood, have such a great impact on our lives. The memories I have from my childhood aren’t just the fun and nice ones spent with my family and friends; a lot of them are the countless books I’ve read - from the short picture books of my nostalgic Curious George series to long chapter books like The Inheritance Cycle or Harry Potter. 


Out of all the books I’ve read, there’s no doubt that this simple Curious George series will be held the most dear in my heart. Despite this just being a simple picture book, there’s still so much that’s conveyed in pictures. I guess that’s why they say a picture is worth a thousand words. As a visual learner who prefers physically seeing ideas as an image or in real life, I always understood more from picture books than I ever understood from long, dense chapter books. Of course, classics like Harry Potter, Percy Jackson, and more were great books. However, there’s something much more personal and emotional about these picture books. 


While I’ve never been able to pinpoint where my personal and emotional connection to picture books comes from, I’m certain that it depends heavily on my childhood. The memories we make, the habits we pick up, and the actions we take in our childhood stay with us for the longest time. As children, we make experiences by reading, watching, learning, and enjoying with others. These all affect the development of our brain's architecture, providing us with the foundation for our future learnings, behaviors, and health. I suppose that’s why I still have such a strong connection and stubbornly refuse to donate my Curious George The Monkey Collection to this day. 


Comments

  1. Peter ShrMarch 25, 2024 at 5:22 PM

    Hi Rashmi! Reading about your blog on the special impact Curious George has had on your life resonated extremely deeply in me, as I had written a similar discussion on how my favorite film, Castle in the Sky, has affected me since my childhood. I appreciate how you vividly describe your attachment to the book series in your introduction, showing how every single seemingly simplistic feature draws a special amount of attention. It is as if every minute detail works in harmony to create the perfect work of art or literature in our childhood. I can easily visualize how these books might stand out from the rest of the shelf, and your daily attention exemplifies the long-standing emotional weight they hold. Moreover, the fact that your writing is also on the impact of your childhood book series indicates the extent of nostalgia’s impact on our memories. One way to look at why some books or movies that evoke nostalgia have so much power is that they bring us to the emotions we experienced in our childhood. These works are heavily intertwined with that sense of carefreeness and naïveté. So, although I sincerely empathize with your connection to an object first found in the past, I am unable to relate as much with the attachment to Curious George.

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  2. Ayush ChaurasiaMarch 25, 2024 at 10:03 PM

    Hi Rashmi! Thank you for sharing the details of your relationship with your collection of Curious George books since it affirms my similar attachment to my stash of the first dozen Diary of A Wimpy Kid books. Though they certainly were not the first books I picked up, and they certainly were not the first books I enjoyed reading (I too was a fan of picture books as a child), the Diary of A Wimpy Kid series introduced me to a novel sense of humor that really shaped my view on the world—I went from having a straightforward, naive perspective to one that is more sarcastic and careless. I like to believe that the value of a book is not in its appearance or its length, but in the experience and values that a person can gain by reading the book; this likely played a role in your formation of a “personal and emotional connection” to certain picture books. On another topic, I enjoyed reading this blog post because its casual tone made it easy to understand and connect with, and that is what allowed me to reflect on the most treasured books that I own. After reading this blog, I am more confident in my plans not to donate my prized book collection anytime soon since I am more aware of the powerful emotional connections I have formed with it.

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  3. Andrelina HsuMarch 27, 2024 at 9:07 PM

    Hey Rashmi! I was also a big fan of Curious George, much like yourself—so much so as to dress up like The Man in the Yellow Hat on Halloween while my friend was George. In my glowing, bright outfit, it really made me reminisce on my childhood, which I found interesting because even after all this time, Curious George still makes me laugh. Although I only had one of the books, I was a major fan of the TV show. I feel like this example speaks to the power of simple memories, because despite having gone almost 10 years without watching the show, I can still remember the entire essence of the show. I think the main reason for this is because of how simple Curious George’s plotline was. There weren’t any overly complicated conflicts or stories, because children’s shows are just designed to be memorable. We could just enjoy the moment and have fun with George and his friends on a lazy afternoon, eating our goldfish and sipping our juice. In this way, seeing reminders of it now is really similar to a breath of fresh air, reminding us of the innocence and curiosity we all had as kids. But Curious George isn't just about having a good time. He also teaches us important stuff like trying new things, solving problems, and learning from our mistakes. These are all such important qualities, because in a world that sometimes expects us to be perfect, George shows us that it's okay to be ourselves, flaws and all. Therefore, I think that the creators of the show definitely made it memorable for a reason—for us to not just remember the laughs and smiles but also the valuable lessons he teaches us about exploring, being strong when things get tough, and the true meaning of friendship. Childhood shows will forever stick with us, and that sense of wonder and adventure will be alive and linger in our everyday lives, no matter how old we get, because stories remind us that even the simplest moments can hold a lot of magic and beauty.

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