Caps for Sale: A Tale of a Peddler, Some Monkeys, and Their Monkey Business, by Esphyr Slobodkina
Published by HarperCollins, 1947
Target Audience
Lexile level AD480L
This book is for younger readers, kindergarten to third grades
Summary
This story is about a man who sells hats. He is very careful to not let his hats fall over, and to not lose his hats. He falls asleep under a tree, after not being able to sell any hats one morning. When he wakes up, he finds that monkeys from the tree have stolen all of his hats. He finally gets them back after the monkeys do as he does, by throwing the hats onto the ground in frustration.
Evaluation
This is a good story because it is a fun one for children to listen to, especially because silly monkeys are involved. The main character overcame his problem in a way that made sense, because he got frustrated and threw his own hat on the ground, and that so happened to be what made the monkeys do the same. The character fit the setting, since it was clearly set in a time where people dressed differently. The setting, though, I don't think is truly authentic, just because monkeys would not be living in a tree like the one that was in the illustrations.
Lesson
The lesson to go with this book would be about assonance, and how that made the language in this book flow really well. There would be discussion about onomatopoeia, because the monkeys were making noise at the peddler, and the students would have fun making that noise. The use of foreshadowing could also be talked about, since the peddler is so diligent about checking that each one of his caps is on his head. The students could also try balancing something such as a book on their heads, just to see how hard it is to balance so many things on top of your head.
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