 The cover of a late edition of Caps for Sale. | |
| Author | Esphyr Slobodkina |
|---|---|
| Illustrator | Esphyr Slobodkina |
| Cover artist | Esphyr Slobodkina |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Children's literature |
| Publisher | W. R. Scott |
Publication date | 1940 |
| Media type | |
| Pages | 48 |
| ISBN | 978-0064431439 |
| OCLC | 13008528 |
| Website | capsforsale |
Caps for Sale is a children's picture book, written and illustrated by Esphyr Slobodkina and published by W. R. Scott in 1940. [1]
Based on a folktale, the story follows a mustachioed cap-selling peddler (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 monkeys steal all the caps but his own checked cap 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. [2]
It is Slobodkina's best-known work, and has sold more than two million copies. [3] 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 in 1958. [4]
The earliest known account of the story may be found in The Wilmington Centinel published in Wilmington, North Carolina January 8, 1789. [5] "According to the following relation from a person just returned from the Labrador 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 mentioned above, 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".
Slobodkina published a sequel, Pezzo the Peddler and the Circus Elephant, in 1967, twenty-seven years after the publication of Caps for Sale. [6] It was reissued in 2002, after Slobodkina's death, as Circus Caps for Sale. [7] 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. [8] This was followed by Caps for Sale and the Mindful Monkeys in 2017. [9] The illustrations for the latter two books were created by scanning and editing images from Slobodkina's original artwork. [10]
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, animated using illustrations from the book. [11] A remake was released on Weston Woods's 2007 collection Picture Book Classics on DVD, narrated by Rex Robbins.
The Adventures of Pinocchio, commonly shortened to Pinocchio, is a children's fantasy novel by Italian author Carlo Collodi. It is about the mischievous adventures of an animated marionette named Pinocchio and his creator and father figure, a poor woodcarver named Geppetto.
Doctor John Dolittle is the central character of a series of children's books by Hugh Lofting starting with the 1920 The Story of Doctor Dolittle. He is a physician who shuns human patients in favour of animals, with whom he can speak in their own languages. He later becomes a naturalist, using his abilities to speak with animals to better understand nature and the history of the world.
This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1938.
Curious George is a fictional monkey who is the title character of a series of popular children's picture books written by Margret and H. A. Rey and illustrated by Alan Shalleck. Various media, including films and TV shows, have been based upon the original book series.
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 19th-century America the word "drummer" was often used to refer to a peddler or traveling salesman; as exemplified in the popular play Sam'l of Posen; or, The Commercial Drummer by George H. Jessop.
Monkey see, monkey do is a pidgin-style saying that was already called an "old saying" in 1900. The saying refers to the learning of a process without an understanding of why it works. Another definition implies the act of imitation, usually with limited knowledge and/or concern for the consequences.
Simeon Selby Pennewill was an American farmer and politician from Dover, in Kent County, Delaware. He was a member of the Republican Party, who served in the Delaware General Assembly and as Governor of Delaware.
Corduroy is a 1968 children's book written and illustrated by Don Freeman, and published by The Viking Press. Based on a 2007 online poll, the National Education Association listed the book as one of its "Teachers' Top 100 Books for Children." It was one of the "Top 100 Picture Books" of all time in a 2012 poll by School Library Journal. The book is about the titular character, an anthropomorphic teddy bear, in a department store.
Joan Winsor Blos was an American writer, teacher and advocate for children's literacy.
Momotaro: Sacred Sailors is the first Japanese feature-length animated film. It was directed by Mitsuyo Seo, who was ordered to make a propaganda film for World War II by the Japanese Naval Ministry. Shochiku Moving Picture Laboratory shot the 74-minute film in 1944 and screened it on April 12, 1945. It is a sequel to Momotarō no Umiwashi, a 37-minute film released in 1943 by the same director.
Esphyr Slobodkina was a Russian Empire-born American artist, author, and illustrator, best known for her classic children's picture book Caps for Sale. Slobodkina was a celebrated avant garde artist and feminist in the middle part of the 20th century.
"I Wan'na Be Like You (The Monkey Song)" is a song from Walt Disney's 1967 film The Jungle Book. The song was written by songwriters Robert and Richard Sherman, and was performed by singer and musician Louis Prima as King Louie, with Phil Harris providing additional vocals as Baloo the bear.
Danny and the Dinosaur is a children's picture book by Syd Hoff, first published by Harper & Brothers in 1958. It has sold over ten million copies and has been translated into a dozen languages. The book inspired six other sequels by Syd Hoff. Danny and the Dinosaur is designated as an I Can Read! Book.
Lafcadio: The Lion Who Shot Back, first published in 1963, is a children's story written and illustrated by Shel Silverstein. It is narrated by Shel Silverstein in the voice of a character named Uncle Shelby.
John Dabney (1752–1819) was a postmaster, publisher, and bookseller in Salem, Massachusetts, in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. He was born in Boston in 1752 to Charles Dabney and Elizabeth Gardner. With Thomas C. Cushing, John Dabney published the Salem Mercury newspaper, 1787-1789. In 1790 he married Abigail Mason Peale (1767-1834). Beginning around 1790 he ran the "Salem Book-Store" which offered books for sale or short-term rental; customers included William Bentley. Dabney also served as Salem postmaster ca.1792-1815. He belonged to the North Church in Salem and the Essex Lodge of the Freemasons. Dabney sold the contents of his shop at auction in 1818. He died in 1819.
W. R. Scott was a children's literature publisher based in New York City that specialized in visually striking books with a contemporary educational philosophy. W. R. Scott's first editor was Margaret Wise Brown; the company also published a number of her books.
Lilibet, Circus Child is a book by the Swedish writer Astrid Lindgren, with photos by Anna Riwkin-Brick. In 1960 the book was published by Rabén & Sjögren.
Ann Maria Jackson was an enslaved woman with nine children who ran away from her enslaver in November 1858 after two of her eldest children had been sold. Her husband became mentally ill and died in a poor house. After finding out that four more of her children were about to be sold, she gathered the seven children who were with her and traveled along the Underground Railroad for Canada. She went through the way of Wilmington, then to Philadelphia, later to St.Catherines, and then to Toronto. This was rare as she had brought her seven children with her through the Underground Railroad. It was difficult for women to run away secretly. The Jacksons established new lives for themselves in Toronto. Her two eldest children later reunited with the family, and the youngest, Albert Jackson, became the first African American to work as a letter carrier in Toronto.
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