"Caaaps! Caps for Sale!"

An Oldie but a Goodie :-)

I work as a Instructional Assistant at an Elementary School and one day recently, I noticed a first grade girl reading one of the "Rosey Reader" books. I looked over her shoulder and looked at a picture in the book. There in the book was an illustration of a man with several colorful hats stacked on top of his head, heading down a long road. "Oh my gosh!", I exclaimed, "I remember this book! I use to read it all the time when I was a little girl!" The girl holding the book just looked up at me with a 'so what?' expression on her face, but I just smiled back at her.

The children's folktalke, CAPS FOR SALE: A tale of a Peddler, Some Monkeys and Their Monkey Business,  was one of my all time favorite books to read when I was a first grader and just really learning to read. In fact, as I recall, the book was the first one that I read through in its entirety all by myself! I use to absolutely LOVE this book and would read it over, and over and over again. Up until the moment I saw that girl flipping its pages, I had completely forgotten about it. I'm glad that it is in my life once more.

CAPS FOR SALE, told and illustrated by Siberian born author Esphyr Slobodkina, was originally published in 1940. The folktale is about a peddler who walks around town with a tower of colorful hats stacked on his head yelling "Caps! Caps for sale! Fifty cents a cap!" The poor man cannot get anyone to buy his caps which I always thought was weird because fifty cents for a cap is a freaking steal! Anyway, the peddler decides to take a nap under a tree and wakes up to find that his caps have disappeared! He looks all over the place and then finally looks up into the tree. His discovery is that a bunch of mischievous monkeys have taken all his caps (all except his own checkered cap) and have proudly placed them on their heads. This was always my favorite part of the story. As a child I would wonder 'Where did those monkeys come from? Did they escape from a circus or zoo? Those bad monkeys!' As the story progresses, the peddler tries to angrily persuade the naughty monkey's to return his caps but fails miserably. I always felt so bad for the peddler but on the other hand thought it very funny when the monkey's would mimic the peddlers finger waving and foot stomping. Eventually, the peddler gives up,throws his checkered hat to the ground and sadly walks away. Then to his surprise, the peddler sees his caps raining from the tree! The silly monkeys, mimicking the peddlers actions once more,throw all of the caps out of the tree. The peddler happily stacks his caps, places them on his head, and goes on his merry way to sell his wares.

I got great pleasure out of reading this classic tale again after all these years. It reminded me of a simpler time in my life and rejuvenated my joy in reading simply told stories as well. Reading this story as an adult makes me realize why I loved it so much as a child. The abstract illustrations are very eye-catching. Also, the idea that the peddler could carry a tower of caps on his head was always amazing to me. I adored looking at the colors of all the caps and even counting them while he carried them on his head and while they were on the head of the bad little monkeys. Believe it or not, I would also count the caps after the monkeys threw them back (just to make sure the peddler got each and everyone one of them back, of course.)

Now that this book has been re-introduced to me, I will never let it leave my library again. I still enjoy this book for all the reasons I did as a child and hope it stays in publication for many years to come so that other generations of children can enjoy the peddler, his tower of caps and the antics of those naughty little monkeys.

Reflective Reading

• If you were selling caps, what would you do to get people to buy them?
• If you were the peddler, what would you have done differently to get the monkeys to return your caps?
• Like me, do you wonder where all the monkeys came from? Write about where you think the monkeys came from and how they happen to be in the tree.

Active Reading

• Can you balance a tower of caps on your head? Try it!
• Ask everyone in your class to bring a baseball cap to school. Now, while sitting down and with your cap on your head, have your teacher add one cap at a time to your head and see how high it will go.
• Let everyone have a try but make sure everyone uses their own cap as the first one.
• If there is camera available, have someone take a picture of each person with the tower of caps on their heads.

Resources

Slobodkina, E.(1968.) Caps for sale. USA ; Haper Collins Publishers

Slobokina Foundation. (2012.) Slobokina Foundation Website.
Retrieved December 1, 2012 from http://www.slobodkinafoundation.org/about/