Caps for Sale (book)

Before you even know my name, you can see the story I hold. On my cover, a man with a wonderful mustache wears a tall, wobbly tower of gray, brown, blue, and red hats. He’s sleeping under a big green tree, and if you look closely, you can see some silly monkeys peeking from the branches. They look like they are up to something. I am a book, a special one filled with bright colors and a very funny story that has made children giggle for many, many years. My name is 'Caps for Sale', and I can’t wait to tell you about the adventure inside my pages. It’s a story all about a little bit of monkey business.

I was brought to life a long time ago, in the year 1940, by a wonderful artist and storyteller named Esphyr Slobodkina. She lived in a busy city called New York, but she loved thinking about stories from faraway places. She heard an old folktale, a story that people had been telling each other for many years, and she knew right away that it would make children giggle. Esphyr was a very creative and clever artist. She didn’t just paint my pictures with a brush and wet paint. Instead, she did something special. She carefully cut colorful paper into all the shapes she needed to tell my story. This kind of art is called collage. She snipped and glued to create the peddler, his neat black-and-white checkered suit, and all fifteen of the mischievous monkeys. She made sure his stack of caps was perfectly balanced on his head. She also gave the peddler a big, booming voice to shout his famous words, 'Caps. Caps for sale. Fifty cents a cap.'. And most importantly, she made the monkeys very, very good at copying everything the peddler did, which is where the real fun of my story begins. She worked so hard to make every single page a colorful surprise for you.

My story is all about what happens when the hardworking peddler decides to take a little nap under a big, shady tree. When he wakes up, all his caps are gone. All of them. except for his own checkered one. He looks everywhere, and then he looks up. High up in the tree are all the monkeys, and every single monkey is wearing one of his caps. He is not happy. He shakes his finger at them and tells them to give his caps back, but they just shake their little fingers back at him. He stomps his foot in frustration, and what do you think they do. They stomp their little feet back. Children who read my pages love to act this part out. They shout along with the peddler and giggle at the silly monkeys. For over eighty years since I was first published, I have been shared in classrooms and at bedtime, helping everyone see how funny a tricky situation can be.

Even though I am made of paper and ink, my story feels new every time it's told. Grandparents who giggled at the monkeys when they were small now share me with their grandchildren. I get to see new faces light up with the same surprise and laughter. I remind everyone that sometimes, even a frustrating moment can turn into a funny story you'll tell forever. A little bit of 'monkey business' helps keep the world playful and bright, and a good story connects us all.