MOUSE WENT OUT TO GET A SNACK

Mouse, seeking a small snack, stumbles onto a feast—a seemingly abandoned banquet table piled high with everything from colorful cupcakes to tasty tacos. He flexes his tiny muscles, cracks his knuckles and commences to hurl a plate, and then some food, off the table: “1 piece of cheese / 2 plump plums, 3 baby carrots”... all the way to “10 slices of chocolate cake.” Of course, as can happen in mouse books, a cat appears on the scene. Mouse hoists his heaping plate above his head and skedaddles, only to realize his mouse hole will not accommodate the large snack. Oh, well. One piece of cheese—and a flat cat smashed by a flying plate—are good enough for one small mouse anyway. While the simple story isn’t groundbreaking, preschoolers will enjoy the sneaky-mouse pacing, food-hurling and near-misses. The almost frame-by-frame, perspective-switching illustrations of the rather ratty, spindly Mouse are comical and endearing, making this a light but tasty morsel. (Picture book. 3-6)