The End by David LaRochelle, illustrated by Richard Egielski (2007)

"The End" is a silly fairytale told backwards.  It starts with "And they all lived happily ever after..." and finishes with "once upon a time..."  In between is a reverse progression of cause and effect events:  "The knight fell in love with the princess because…she poured a big bowl of lemonade on top of his head."  I introduce the book by talking about how stories move from start to finish, then pretend to be surprised when that first page is the opposite of what I just said.  Then I explain how this book does it backwards and proceed.  The page turns are surprising and funny.  The ideal audience for this is probably school age kids, where you could really explore elements of story, but I like it with preschoolers too because it's a different twist on narrative skills.  Also a good way to introduce narrative skills to parents in a way that they'll remember.

- Steven Engelfried