This absurd and very simple story has become a classic, selling hundreds of thousands of copies since its first publication in 1940. A peddler walks around selling caps from a tall, tottering pile on his head. Unable to sell a single cap one morning, he walks out into the countryside, sits down under a tree, checks that all the caps are in place, and falls asleep. When he wakes up, the caps are gone—and the tree is full of cap-wearing monkeys. His attempts to get the caps back generate the kind of repetitive rhythm that young children will adore.
Slobodkina's story of a peddler trying to sell his wares in a small town has a clear beginning, middle, and end. This is a good one for teaching children to learn how to make predictions, recognize patterns, sequence events, and notice setting elements.