caps for sale

So I’m briefly interrupting the spitting saga (spitting mad?) with this anecdote.

As previously reported, my kids love books. The Sweet Potato has always loved the Eric Carle books (on a side note, when can I become a children’s book author–have you read some of this stuff?), but lately, his favorite book is Caps for Sale, by Esphyr Slobodkina. For those of you not familiar with it, this is the story of a peddler who is having trouble selling his caps, and goes for a walk in the country. He falls asleep under the tree with all the caps stacked up on his head, and he wakes up to find that all but one of his caps have been stolen by monkeys.

He tries a variety of persuasion methods, including shaking his finger at them and stamping his feet, but the monkeys are unconvinced until he throws his own cap on the ground in a rage. Then, the monkeys who have been copying him all along, throw their caps onto the ground too.

We’ve been reading the SP this story every night for about a week, and doing a little demonstration during the reading. Last night, he was so excited that when I started to read it, he was waving his finger, and then stamping his feet, far in advance of those pages.

It made me so happy to see him that excited, and of course he’s just adorable, doing his little monkey dance in his crib. I just love how kids lose themselves in fiction.

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