Sunday, August 26, 2012

Caps for Sale


Yesterday we met the two-month-old son of some friends, and as usual, we brought books as a gift. One of them was the board book version of Esphyr Slobodkina's 1940 classic Caps For Sale. Our friends did not know of the book, but the three-year-old big brother quickly made it a family favorite. "Read it again," he told me - three times. 

I read this book again and again and again when our sons were young, and I found it was still committed to memory. The board book text is slightly altered from the original. Some of my favorite parts were omitted, and I found myself ready to say the non-existent phrases, like "But nobody wanted any caps that morning. Nobody wanted even a red cap." My young friend, however, was more concerned about the cap colors. The original text reads like this:

"First he had on his own checked cap, then a bunch of gray caps, then a bunch of brown caps, then a bunch of blue caps, and on the very top a bunch of red caps."

Because of the color reproduction, there doesn't appear to be any brown caps on the page, only goldish-yellow caps. So, he would add, "And a bunch of yellow caps." When I got home, I checked our copy of the book, and the caps are a cross between brown and tan, certainly not yellow.

3 comments:

  1. The kids & I loved this book when I did story times at the library! With the abundance of so many new picture books, I love that some of the older classics still enrich children's lives! What is it the monkeys say? Tsz, tsz, tsz! PS Love the bright little knit caps!

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  2. You're right, Rita. The monkeys say, Tsz, tsz, tsz! I have been knitting the caps to give to new babies when we give the book :)

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  3. Are you familiar with "Kiki's Hats?" It's a delightful book, and the "real Kiki" is a former colleague of mine, a Spanish teacher. Granddaughter has a few of Kiki's hats, too.!!

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