Friday Fun

It's Friday and Fridays are for Fun
Sometimes I sit down with a young person to read and find a story I loved as a child, or my children loved, just doesn't hold up in the 21st century. That is certainly not true of Caps for Sale by Esphyr Slobodkina, published in 1938.

Based on a folktale, the story follows the life of a mustachioed cap salesman who wears his entire stock of caps on his head — seventeen in all, as depicted on the title page (including his own cap). He strolls through towns and villages chanting, "Caps! Caps for sale! Fifty cents a cap!"

One day, the peddler sits down under a tree to take a nap, with all his wares still on his head. When he awakens, all the caps but his own are gone - stolen by a troop of monkeys, who now sit in the tree wearing them. The peddler orders them to return his caps, scolds them, and yells at them, while the monkeys only imitate him. The peddler finally throws down his own cap in disgust - upon which the monkeys throw theirs down as well, right at his feet. He stacks the caps back on his head and strolls back to town, calling, "Caps! Caps for sale! Fifty cents a cap!"

Find the book at your library and have some cap fun with a child you love.