The Tale of Pip & Squeak by Kate Duke. 

Pip and Squeak are brother mice who simply do not get along.  Squeak’s singing hurts Pip’s ears and Pip’s paint fumes give Squeak a headache.   The live together in the same house, but each in a different tower.  Once a year, the two brothers give a party where Squeak sings in his tower and Pip displays his paintings in his.  Now the party is approaching, but Squeak has written a very long song to sing and decides to build a large stage in the middle of the main floor of the house.  Pip responds by painting huge pictures that will be displayed there as well.  A huge fight breaks out between them, and everything is destroyed.  Can they put aside their differences in time to have a party tomorrow?

This book is filled with charming details in both the writing and the illustrations.  Duke’s writing is clear and simple, but not babyish.  She feels free to use longer words that really work in the story.  It is a joy to see words that stretch vocabulary as a part of a picture book.  Her illustrations are equally deft.  At the opening of the book, the reader sees an entire village of mice living in an attic.  Far in the back of the attic is an amazing home built from a shoebox that attaches two towers, one made of play-doh buckets and the other from a Tinkertoy box.  Just charming.

Recommended for mice or sibling storytimes, or just when you need a great book to read to kindergarteners or first graders.  They will enjoy the conflict, the humor, the charm and the resolution.  I enjoy that the story has a beginning, middle and end, all tied neatly together with clarity and grace.