Mouse Mess by Linnea Riley (1997)

An oldie but a goodie, this book follows a mouse's night-time adventures making a mess in the people-sized kitchen while getting himself a snack.

This book is good for multiple skills, especially phonological awareness and narrative sills . For narrative skills, I read the text on the first page spread, and then have the kids "tell" the story based on the pictures for the rest of the book. A good adult message is "books that allow kids to tell the story by looking at the pictures are great for building narrative skills."

There are also images good for follow-up discussion, such as asking about times they have jumped in piles of leaves, or foods they like to eat for a snack, or times they have made a castle or made a mess. It's great for dialogic reading, as well, because there are lots of opportunities for asking open-ended questions: "What is the mouse doing in this picture?" "Why didn't he clean up the mess?" "What would you do if you saw a big mess like that?"

This is also a fun book to pair with Song of Night, written by Katherine Riley Nakamura and illustrated by Linnea Riley, because the book the cats in jammies are reading is Mouse Mess, and it's interesting to see how many kids connect the book in the picture with the book you just read!

Natasha