Advertise here with Carbon Ads

This site is made possible by member support. ❤️

Big thanks to Arcustech for hosting the site and offering amazing tech support.

When you buy through links on kottke.org, I may earn an affiliate commission. Thanks for supporting the site!

kottke.org. home of fine hypertext products since 1998.

🍔  💀  📸  😭  🕳️  🤠  🎬  🥔

B.J. Novak considers Caps for Sale & other kid’s books. “The best children’s books […] aren’t advertisements for anything — not even the important things. They’re an advertisement for reading itself; for the entertainment value of the world itself.”

Discussion  4 comments

Amelia

Fully agree with this take. Caps for Sale is one of my two year old’s favorite books. I don’t blame her- it has one of the most bizarre twists in any children’s book I’ve read. And also a bit of a plot. Glad to learn there are sequels!

Lisa S.

I have always loved "Caps for Sale"! I loved it when I was a kid, and I loved reading it to my kid. It truly is that rhythm or the song of it that he talks about.

Jason KottkeMOD

I used to read this to my kids. The last time was probably 6-7 years ago, and I can still remember the cadence and intonation I used. As the man got madder, I'd raise my voice and go higher in pitch, until my voice started cracking and I sounded like Seinfeld getting mock-angry. And my daughter would laugh every time.

Steven M

All the way agree. Anytime someone does something naughty we all go "Tss Tss Tss." Our favorite lately has been Mickey in The Night Kitchen. So strange, so bizarre, but "Milk in the batter!" often rings down the hall for no reason whatsoever.

Hello! In order to leave a comment, you need to be a current kottke.org member. If you'd like to sign up for a membership to support the site and join the conversation, you can explore your options here.

Existing members can sign in here. If you're a former member, you can renew your membership.

Note: If you are a member and tried to log in, it didn't work, and now you're stuck in a neverending login loop of death, try disabling any ad blockers or extensions that you have installed on your browser...sometimes they can interfere with the Memberful links. Still having trouble? Email me!