The book had a whole heap of short stories and nursery rhymes. There was a story near the middle of he book about a hat seller who has all these different coloured hats piled up and gets them stolen off him by monkeys in the tree. Some illustrations in the book were done by children. Also had "this old man" rhyme in it. Can anyone help?:confused:

I believe the story you are referring to is Caps for Sale: A Tale of a Peddler, Some Monkeys and Their Monkey Business by Esphyr Slobodkina. As for the collection, without more info, I couldn't tell you as there are many anthologies and collections available.

There was also a rhyme about a caterpillar in an apple?? The rhyme being - "i one it you two it" and so on... "you eight it". A story about an old man/woman living in an apple with animals... sorry I can't remember much more it was so long ago