Lunchby Denise Fleming (1992)

An older book, but one that's a sure storytime hit and great for early literacy skills.  The visual hints that show the next food mouse will eat encourages narrative skills ("what will happen next?").  Vocabulary exploration comes in the text ("sour," "turnip," "tart"…) and as you talk about the details of the pictures ("pod," "rind").  It works especially well as an example when giving a presentation to parents.  While reading the book to parents, you can easily demonstrate how asking questions and talking about pictures and words (dialogic reading) can enhance early literacy skills and make the book sharing more interactive. 

Steven Engelfried