subtitle: A Tale of a Peddler, Some Monkeys and Their Monkey Business
Esphyr Slobodkina, author and illustrator
New York: HarperCollins, 1968 – originally published 1940
40 pp
Age: 2 and up (also good for beginning readers: 6+)
Interests: monkeys, folktales
A peddler selling caps walks through a village and into the countryside. He takes a nap under a tree and wakes to find that his entire inventory has been stolen by monkeys. He must think of a way to get his caps back and succeeds in the end, thanks to a game of ‘monkey see monkey do’.
A gentle, simple folktale with repetition that invites a young child to join in. The bold drawings should be very appealing to even the youngest child, though kids as old as five will still find the story funny. (My daughter laughed her head off.)
Rarest Kind of Best 