Caps For Sale: A Tale of a Peddler, Some Monkeys and Their Monkey Business

The children’s picture book Caps For Sale. A Tale of a Peddler, Some Monkeys and Their Monkey Business is written and illustrated by Esphyr Slobodkina. The target audience for this book is preschool and kindergarten age children, both boys and girls.

-Rating: 4 out of 5 Stars ****

-Summary: The story is about a peddler who walks around a town selling caps. One day he takes an afternoon nap and a group of monkeys steal all of his caps and he has to attempt to get all of them back. 

Caps For Sale has always bee one of my childhood favorites and I decided to revisit the book and see if it was different now that I was older. It still is one of my favorites years later and I felt the same way reading it again. I like how the reader does not have to read the text to understand what the story is about or what is happening as the story progresses.  To me, it is all about the illustrations. There is not much text on each page to I am drawn right to the pictures. The idea of the story is also fun to read. The pictures are silly and the idea of monkeys stealing items from someone is just a fun topic to read about, especially for young children who are amused by simple aspects. The story uses a lot of repetition too that makes the text flow nicely together. This story is easy to read aloud and is a great example of music in language. The language flows smoothly together so the reader is not hung up on awkward sentences or words.

This book would be great for a preschool and/or kindergarten classroom. The idea of the story is easily enjoyed by children and is easy to read if students are at that point. The repetition of the text gives it a familiar tune and grabs the student’s attention. The illustrations are also very colorful but yet simplistic and easy to understand. Caps For Sale is also a good book for younger students because they are able to understand the story without needing to read the text so non-readers can enjoy this book also. In a classroom setting with older students this can be an example of how repetition can be used to tell a story. Repetition is also a great way for students to learn to read. According to reading and literacy expert Mem Fox, repetition is key for new readers and being successful at reading (Reading Magic).