''Caps for Sale: A Tale of a Peddler, Some Monkeys and Their Monkey Business'' is a children's

picture book A picture book combines visual and verbal narratives in a book format, most often aimed at young children. With the narrative told primarily through text, they are distinct from comics, which do so primarily through sequential images. The images ...

, written and illustrated by

Esphyr Slobodkina Esphyr Slobodkina (russian: Эсфирь Соломоновна Слободкина; September 22, 1908 – July 21, 2002) was a Russian Empire-born American artist, author, and illustrator, best known for her classic children's picture book ''Ca ...

and published by W. R. Scott in 1940.

Summary

Based on a

folktale A folktale or folk tale is a folklore genre that typically consists of a story passed down from generation to generation orally. Folktale may also refer to: Categories of stories * Folkloric tale from oral tradition * Fable (written form of the a ...

, the story follows a mustachioed

cap A cap is a flat headgear, usually with a visor. Caps have crowns that fit very close to the head. They made their first appearance as early as 3200 BC. Caps typically have a visor, or no brim at all. They are popular in casual and informal se ...

-selling

peddler A peddler, in British English pedlar, also known as a chapman, packman, cheapjack, hawker, higler, huckster, (coster)monger, colporteur or solicitor, is a door-to-door and/or travelling vendor of goods. In England, the term was mostly used f ...

(unnamed in the book, he is known as Pezzo in the sequel ''Circus Caps for Sale'') who wears his entire stock of caps on his head. When the peddler goes to sleep under a tree, a troupe of

monkey Monkey is a common name that may refer to most mammals of the infraorder Simiiformes, also known as the simians. Traditionally, all animals in the group now known as simians are counted as monkeys except the apes, which constitutes an incomple ...

s steal all the caps but his own and put them on. The peddler tries in vain to get the monkeys to return the caps (first shaking his finger, then shaking both of his hands, then stamping one of his feet, and finally stamping both feet), but they only imitate his actions. Finally, he waves his own cap in the air, throws it on the ground in disgust and walks away, causing the monkeys to do the same. The peddler collects all the caps off the ground and goes on his way.

Popularity

It is Slobodkina's best-known work, and has sold more than two million copies. ''Caps for Sale'' is a popular read-aloud book, because its repetitive text permits children to speak the lines and thus join in the reading experience. It won a

Lewis Carroll Shelf Award The Lewis Carroll Shelf Award was an American literary award conferred on several books annually by the University of Wisconsin–Madison School of Education annually from 1958 to 1979. Award-winning books were deemed to "belong on the same shelf" ...

in 1958.

History

The earliest known account of the story may be found in ''The Wilmington Centinel'' published in

Wilmington, North Carolina Wilmington is a port city in and the county seat of New Hanover County in coastal southeastern North Carolina, United States. With a population of 115,451 at the 2020 census, it is the eighth most populous city in the state. Wilmington is t ...

January 8, 1789. "According to the following relation from a person just returned from the

Labrador , nickname = "The Big Land" , etymology = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Canada , subdivision_type1 = Province , subdivision_name1 ...

coast, the imitative faculty in monkeys seems to exceed every thing short of human. –A sailor having a number of red woolen caps, &c to dispose of among the natives, went on shore for that purpose ; his way to a settlement lying through a woods very copiously inhabited by the species abovementioned, and it being mid day, put a cap on his head, and laying the others by his side, he determined upon a little repose under the shade of a plantain tree. To his utter astonishment, when he awoke, from the specimen he had given his imitative observers of the use of his caps, he beheld a number of them upon the heads of the monkeys on the trees, round about him, while the wearers were chattering in an unusual manner. Finding every attempt to regain them fruitless , he at length in a fit of rage and disappointment, and under the supposition the one he retained was not worth taking away, &c. pulled the same from his head, and throwing it upon the ground exclaimed ---“ here d—n you, take it among ye,” which he had no sooner done, than to his great surprise, the observant monkeys did the same, by which means he regained the greatest part of his property."

Sequels

Slobodkina published a sequel, ''Pezzo the Peddler and the Circus Elephant'', in 1967, twenty-seven years after the publication of ''Caps for Sale''. It was reissued in 2002, after Slobodkina's death, as ''Circus Caps for Sale''. A direct sequel bringing back the monkeys, ''More Caps for Sale'', was published in 2015, credited jointly to Slobodkina and her long time personal assistant Ann Marie Mulhearn Sayer. This was followed by ''Caps for Sale and the Mindful Monkeys'' in 2017. The illustrations for the latter two books were created by scanning and editing images from Slobodkina's original artwork.

Other media

''Caps for Sale'' was included as one of five stories on the 1986 VHS release ''Five Stories for the Very Young'' from

Weston Woods Studios Weston Woods Studios (or simply Weston Woods) is a production company that makes audio and short films based on well-known books for children. It was founded in 1953 by Morton Schindel in Weston, Connecticut, and named after the wooded area near h ...

, animated using illustrations from the book. A remake was released on Weston Woods's 2007 collection ''Picture Book Classics'' on

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kin ...

, narrated by

Rex Robbins Rex McNicol Robbins (March 30, 1935 – September 23, 2003) was an American character actor of stage and screen. Career Robbins appeared opposite Angela Lansbury in the 1974 Broadway revival of ''Gypsy''. He made his Broadway debut in 1963 as t ...

References