Caps for Sale and the Mindful Monkeys

The New York Times bestselling and beloved Caps for Sale series by renowned illustrator Esphyr Slobodkina continues

Following More Caps for Sale, this funny and thoughtful read-aloud is inspired by The Elves and the Shoemaker. Here the monkeys prove to the peddler that while they may be mischievous, they can also be very helpful.

Those playful monkeys who wore the peddler's wares in Caps for Sale just won't leave him alone. As he walks through the streets selling his caps, the monkeys follow behind him, and as he walks back home at the end of the day, they trail along too. All in step. The peddler is tired of their trouble, but when he asks his friend Essie for advice, she thinks he should give them one more chance before deciding they're no good. So when the peddler must go out of town to attend to a sick friend, the monkeys have a surprise in store for his return, showing that they might just be more mindful than they appear.

Ann Marie Mulhearn Sayer met Esphyr Slobodkina in 1996, when she was hired to write musical narratives for Caps for Sale and other Slobodkina books. Slobodkina and Sayer became close friends, and Sayer has administrated and exhibited Slobodkina's works for over eighteen years. Using Slobodkina's original art and reflecting upon hours of conversations with her on perspective and her choices in stylization, Sayer employed great care to develop each layout as the artist herself might have done. More Caps for Sale is based on story ideas from Slobodkina and Sayer's imagination with prior permission from Slobodkina. Through this posthumous story, Sayer awakens Slobodkina's voice. To learn more about Ann Marie visit www.CapsforSale.org.

Esphyr Slobodkina (1908-2002), internationally renowned artist and author of the children's classic Caps for Sale, was among the first female American artists to explore abstraction and the first to use collage in American storybooks. She studied art in Russia and China before immigrating to the United States in 1928. She was a founding member of the American Abstract Artists group, and her work is represented in prominent museum collections across the country.

In addition to Caps for Sale Slobodkina also wrote and/or illustrated over 24 children's books. Over the decades she also completed hundreds of paintings and assemblage works that can be found in major museums in the United States.

Before her death in late 2002 Slobodkina left copious notes and illustrations for additional stories. Slobodkina encouraged her assistant and protégé Ann Marie Mulhearn Sayer to carry on her storybook work after Slobodkina's death. Many of Slobodkina's story ideas and characters (including Slobodkina herself) are incorporated into the continuing Caps for Sale book series.