Caps+for+Sale



Book Review By: Michelle Springer

Bibliographical Data:

“Caps for Sale” By Esphyr Slobodkina Publisher: HarperCollins, September 4, 1987 Reading Level: Ages 4-7 years Genre: Juvenile Fiction Paperback: $6.99 (Barnes and Noble) ISBN: 0064431436 Pages: 48 Language: English

Summary:

//Caps for Sale// is a folktale about a peddler who walks around the village carrying his caps on top of his head. He wore his own-checkered cap, then a bunch of grey caps, a bunch of brown caps, a bunch of blue caps and on top a bunch of red caps. He walked around the village chanting “Caps! Caps for sale! 50 cents a cap!” No one wanted to buy his caps so he decided to take a walk into the country. He found a nice tree to take a nap under a tree. Before falling asleep he checked to make sure all his caps for in the right place and took a nap. When he woke up from his nap he checked his caps again and noticed that only his own-checkered cap was on his head. He looked behind all around the tree, no caps. He looked up in the tree and saw monkeys sitting on branches and each monkey had one of his caps on their heads. The peddler shook his fit at the monkeys shouting, “ You monkeys you, you give me back my caps!” The monkeys just shook their fits back and would not give the peddler back the caps. Growing angrier he shook both fits, and stopped his feet at the monkeys shouting, “ You monkeys you, you give me back my caps!” But all the money did was copy the peddler and did not give him back his caps. The peddler was so mad that he threw his own cap to the grown and started to walk away. Just then the monkeys threw their caps on the grown too. The peddler picked up the caps and put his cap back on his head then all the grey caps on, then all the brown caps on, then all the blue caps on, then all the red caps on and slowly walked back to town to try and sell his caps.

Book Review:

I really enjoy reading this book. This book is commonly know as //Caps for Sale// but the really name of the book is //Caps for Sale: A peddler, Some Monkeys and Their Monkey Business//. The whole tittle says it all//,// this story is very cute and, the illustrations do a really great job telling the story. This book is appealing to kids because of the monkeys, they monkeys are seen as pranksters, and what child doesn’t find a prank funny.

Author Biography:

Esphyr Slobodkina was born is Chelyabinsk, Siberia in 1908 and immigrated to America with her family in 1929. She studied at the National Academy of Design, and became a founding member of the American Abstract Artists group. Her career first started off as an illustrator. Some of the books she illustrated were //Mary and the Poodies// and //Sleepy ABCs.// She then moved on to writing and illustrating her own books. Some of her most famous books are //Caps for Sale//, //The Clock//, //The Long Island Duckings// and //Pezzo the Peddler and the Circus Elephant// later to reissued as //Circus Caps for Sale.//

Literary Element Analysis:

This book is a folktale; it would a great book to introduce a unit on folktales to children because it is very simple and a book that most children really enjoy. This book also has a lot of literary elements embedded into it. The main element that evident in this book is illustrations. The illustrations in this book are very simple. They use very simple colors and great details to tell the story. The story never tells where the peddler is but based on the illustrations it is clear that he is in a village and that it takes place long ago. The illustrations also capture the emotion of the peddler and the monkeys when the monkeys steal the peddler’s caps. The pictures show how angry he gets as the monkeys keep mocking him. These illustrations are also very useful because this book talks a lot about the types and colors of the caps and the illustrations demonstrate just that.