The Lion and the Mouse by Gail Herman

This Step Into Reading book retells the classic Aesop story of the lion and the mouse. In the story, a sleepy (and full) lion catches a tiny mouse. The mouse begs to be let go, promising that one day he will come to the aid of the lion if he ever needs it. Amused by the notion that such a tiny creature could help the 'King of Beasts', the lion lets the mouse go. The lion never expects to see him again, but as fate would have it, one day the lion gets trapped in a hunter's net and the mouse is able to fulfill his promise.

The artwork in this one is just charming. Lisa McCue does a fabulous job of making the characters attractive and her color palette is warm and delicious.

Considerations :::
The publisher notes that their Step 1 Readers are "for children who know the alphabet and are eager to begin reading." However, the actual Accelerated Reading level for this book is .07 which means that it's actually for children who have a little bit of reading experience under their belt.

If you look at the second picture for this post (above) you can see that there are very few words per page and that they are in large print. My own personal impression was that some of the words were more difficult than I expected in a book at this level, but I observed that because there were so few of them, that my children were soon be able to memorize them, and that reading the 'bigger' words gave them a real sense of accomplishment.

Though the book was written as a primer it is just perfect for babies, toddlers, preschoolers and non-reading kindergarteners.

Other "Lion and Mouse" practice readers at higher reading levels include books by Mark White (AR 2.7) and Bernadette Watts (AR 3.1).