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If You Give... #1
If You Give a Mouse a Cookie
"If you give a mouse a cookie, he's going to ask for a glass of milk..."
If a hungry little traveler shows up at your house, you might want to give him a cookie. If you give him a cookie, he's going to ask for a glass of milk. He'll want to look in a mirror to make sure he doesn't have a milk mustache, and then he'll ask for a pair of scissors to give himself a trim...
The consequences of giving a cookie to this energetic mouse run the young host ragged, but readers of all ages will come away smiling at the antics that tumble like dominoes through the pages of this delightful picture book.
This book is a great first introduction to Mouse, the star of the 'If You Give...' Series, and a perennial favorite among children. With its spare, rhythmic text and circular tale, 'If You Give a Mouse a Cookie' (1985) is perfect for beginning readers and story time. Sure to inspire giggles and requests to "read it again!"
The award-winning If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, one of the most beloved children’s books of all time, is from the #1 Best-Selling team Laura Numeroff and Felicia Bond.
Age: Preschool-2+
If a hungry little traveler shows up at your house, you might want to give him a cookie. If you give him a cookie, he's going to ask for a glass of milk. He'll want to look in a mirror to make sure he doesn't have a milk mustache, and then he'll ask for a pair of scissors to give himself a trim...
The consequences of giving a cookie to this energetic mouse run the young host ragged, but readers of all ages will come away smiling at the antics that tumble like dominoes through the pages of this delightful picture book.
This book is a great first introduction to Mouse, the star of the 'If You Give...' Series, and a perennial favorite among children. With its spare, rhythmic text and circular tale, 'If You Give a Mouse a Cookie' (1985) is perfect for beginning readers and story time. Sure to inspire giggles and requests to "read it again!"
The award-winning If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, one of the most beloved children’s books of all time, is from the #1 Best-Selling team Laura Numeroff and Felicia Bond.
Age: Preschool-2+
40 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1985
About the author
Laura Joffe Numeroff
124 books900 followersLaura Joffe Numeroff is the NYT best-selling author of If You Give a Mouse a Cookie,
What Mommies/Daddies Do Best
and Raising a Hero. She was born in Brooklyn, New York and graduated from Pratt Institute. Laura grew up as the youngest of three girls, surrounded by art, music, and books. An avid animal lover, Laura has always wanted to write a book about service dogs. She now lives in Los Angeles, California.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 4,722 reviews
March 11, 2010
If you give a mouse a cookie, he's probably going to poop all over your kitchen counter. When's he's done pooping all over your kitchen counter, he'll probably take up residence in your pantry, invite his girlfriend over, and have himself a nice little family in a matter of weeks. He's certainly NOT going to do all of the cute things that this book suggests.
Last night I read this to my son and then tucked him and his fifteen stuffed animals (one of which is most likely a mouse) into bed. Then I went downstairs, spread a dollop of peanut butter on a mouse trap, and placed it on the kitchen counter.
1:00 AM: SNAP!!@#
This morning I tossed the dead mouse into a trash bag and set another trap. Tonight I will again read this book to my son and then we'll probably sing the Mighty Mouse theme song.
Last year (when I was less skilled at setting mouse traps) I was running around my driveway with a shovel trying to end the misery for a mouse who had nearly ripped his leg off trying to escape the trap. My nosy neighbor, who was returning from picking his son up from school, asked me what was going on. I explained that our house was infested with mice and I was on a mission that day to kill them all whether by trap, shovel, or bare hands. His son didn't like the look on my face and turned to go into his house. That's when I noticed his Mickey Mouse book bag and matching lunch box.
Troy Patterson (of Slate) once said this: "A literal pest has become the cuddliest critter in the world, and that, to paraphrase Walter Matthau, exemplifies the worst aspects of marketing that make America great." They are not cute. They are not heroes. They are the exact fucking opposite of that. But I must say that my son really does like this book.
Last night I read this to my son and then tucked him and his fifteen stuffed animals (one of which is most likely a mouse) into bed. Then I went downstairs, spread a dollop of peanut butter on a mouse trap, and placed it on the kitchen counter.
1:00 AM: SNAP!!@#
This morning I tossed the dead mouse into a trash bag and set another trap. Tonight I will again read this book to my son and then we'll probably sing the Mighty Mouse theme song.
Last year (when I was less skilled at setting mouse traps) I was running around my driveway with a shovel trying to end the misery for a mouse who had nearly ripped his leg off trying to escape the trap. My nosy neighbor, who was returning from picking his son up from school, asked me what was going on. I explained that our house was infested with mice and I was on a mission that day to kill them all whether by trap, shovel, or bare hands. His son didn't like the look on my face and turned to go into his house. That's when I noticed his Mickey Mouse book bag and matching lunch box.
Troy Patterson (of Slate) once said this: "A literal pest has become the cuddliest critter in the world, and that, to paraphrase Walter Matthau, exemplifies the worst aspects of marketing that make America great." They are not cute. They are not heroes. They are the exact fucking opposite of that. But I must say that my son really does like this book.
February 10, 2017
Who remembers this book?
Happy is as happy is!!!!
Some books just bring back great memories!!
Happy is as happy is!!!!
Some books just bring back great memories!!
June 17, 2019
If you give a mouse a cookie is the story of the perversity of desire, and more particularly the stunted pleasures of the bourgeoisie. Written by the exquisite Laura Numeroff, in what can only be assumed was a violent passion for sterile aloofness from the society which she condemned, and a lust for concision which would socialize her treatise against the deadening wants, making it accessible to the masses. I can imagine her, unbathed, ignorant of her own hunger and thirst, cutting every insignificant word in a Flaubertian frenzy for le mot juste.
The titular mouse is a scathing manifestation of our ruling, yet tirelessly servile, middle class – his small figure manifests the smallness of our self-worth, and the relative largesse of our smallest desires. Every visible aspect of the overall-clad hero hearkens us to the plight of the middle class in the late twentieth century. The mouse, like man, is easily won over to new “needs” – endlessly trying to fill the vacancy of his own heart, deadened by the loss of illusion, by the evaporation of virtue, and the brutal ennui of routine. But as the significantly unnamed mouse usurps his pleasures and whims from his remote human benefactors, we too usurp our desires. Whether from the conspicuous consumption of the upper classes, from the romantic visions of novels and television programming, or from the simple white noise of broadcast advertising, which we subconsciously mold into our own desires – desires for things which we do not want. René Girard identifies this parallel with chilling accuracy to our present condition: "The distance between Don Quixote and the petty bourgeois victim of advertising is not so great as romanticism would have us believe.” It is easy to replace “bourgeois victim” with our murine hero, raising to idolatry his search for false desires, which leads to a parodically circuitous odyssey of “want.”
Numeroff’s story is one of deceptive simplicity, but with a jarring impact. In less than three-hundred words, she is captures the movement of emotion of her literary predecessors, primarily of French origin, though also hearkening back to the Homeric epics. Proust, James, Balzac, Dickens are among Numeroff’s literary forefathers, and her precision for language shows a heavy influence of Flaubert, contemporarily manifest in the logical exactitude of Truman Capote and Ernest Hemingway. Take or example the opening sequence:
The godless landscape of If you give a mouse a cookie is one marked by a total secularization of morality and gratification. The parallels to our own secular society, in which we are diminished to figurative animals - beasts of pure will driven in the vain effort for satiety of our animalistic desires. Instead of a God, the world within the story is governed by a maternalistic hand - more reminiscent of Neo-Marxian doctrine of entitlement than it is to the classical Judeo-Chrisitan rule of centuries past. Instead of being ruled by virtue, or protagonist is ruled by the ever-demanding "want!" of his body. Cookies, milk, soft bedding, but no time for self reflection, no orison nor even secular gratitude is shared by our profane hero. We compare the mouse's struggle for "want" to the Defoe's struggle for need in Robinson Crusoe, and we are dismayed at the descent from virtue of our present day society, in which our vices and excesses have supplanted our virtues and reservations.
In his gustatory pursuits, we observe his coy glances, his polite demeanor, but ultimately his ingratitude. And what disturbs us as the reader is his humanlike disposition, his canny vanity, his concern with appearances and hygienic preoccupations, and his servility to routine. His look into the pierglass is so human that one expects to see our diminutive friend the next time we check for our own milk-mustaches – the parodic symbol of self-indulgence and minor fall from poise. The vanity implicit in our héros de rongeurs is startling parallel to our own fall from grace, manifest in Milton's Paradise Lost. Despite his many pleasures, his many "wants" they are startlingly mundane to us, they are self-serving but unambitious. He foregoes the search for self-discovery, for transcendent pleasure, for the pleasures of immediacy, which feed his vanity and his comfort. His look into the mirror reveals to us a world of pleasures forgone, given up, in the vain restraints of society, with which he is disturbingly complicit. His concern for his milk-mustache, his imagined need for a haircut - a purely imaginary need for our rodent friend, one which is purely vain and removed from true necessity, disturbs us, but warms us to him. He is made more human to us, but that is precisely the element which disturbs us and makes us question our own vain pursuits.
But our hero’s desires are manifold. What begins as a novel of unhealthy appetite of necessity and hunger, become a hunger for a higher appetite: the hunger for the aesthetic.
If you give a mouse a cookie ends with an almost Borgesian nihilism: “ Looking at the refrigerator will remind him that he’s thirsty so…he’ll ask for a glass of milk. And chances are if he asks for a glass of milk, he’s going to want a cookie to go with it.” Thus desire begets desire, begets desire – the search for fulfillment is endless, and our hero is left always hungry for something new, but can never identify what that is. We are left haunted by this “children’s” story, but the foolishness of the petite protagonist, who wants big things – but those “big things” seem very small to us. It makes the reader turn in upon himself/herself and wonder: what do I want? And what is the ultimate path of my “wants”? Can I ever be fulfilled or am I resigned to the mazy route of routine-desire?
Imagine waking up to realize the fruition of your ultimate desire is only the begetting of more desires? Desires of things which you only believe that you want? Chilling.
The titular mouse is a scathing manifestation of our ruling, yet tirelessly servile, middle class – his small figure manifests the smallness of our self-worth, and the relative largesse of our smallest desires. Every visible aspect of the overall-clad hero hearkens us to the plight of the middle class in the late twentieth century. The mouse, like man, is easily won over to new “needs” – endlessly trying to fill the vacancy of his own heart, deadened by the loss of illusion, by the evaporation of virtue, and the brutal ennui of routine. But as the significantly unnamed mouse usurps his pleasures and whims from his remote human benefactors, we too usurp our desires. Whether from the conspicuous consumption of the upper classes, from the romantic visions of novels and television programming, or from the simple white noise of broadcast advertising, which we subconsciously mold into our own desires – desires for things which we do not want. René Girard identifies this parallel with chilling accuracy to our present condition: "The distance between Don Quixote and the petty bourgeois victim of advertising is not so great as romanticism would have us believe.” It is easy to replace “bourgeois victim” with our murine hero, raising to idolatry his search for false desires, which leads to a parodically circuitous odyssey of “want.”
Numeroff’s story is one of deceptive simplicity, but with a jarring impact. In less than three-hundred words, she is captures the movement of emotion of her literary predecessors, primarily of French origin, though also hearkening back to the Homeric epics. Proust, James, Balzac, Dickens are among Numeroff’s literary forefathers, and her precision for language shows a heavy influence of Flaubert, contemporarily manifest in the logical exactitude of Truman Capote and Ernest Hemingway. Take or example the opening sequence:
If you give a mouse a cookie,Immediately we are drawn into a contained cosmos of desire – which is postulated in a hypothetical, though illustrated in an ever-present reality. While we are kept somewhat distanced from our mouselike counterpart by the conditional, we are drawn in by the seeming reality of the action, the omniscience of the narrator, an almost godly knowing, reminds us of a master Chess player, foreseeing the hero’s moves, up to his ultimate epiphany, from the first line. We are acquainted with the mouse with such immediacy, we feel we know him, we feel as though he is a part of us, or perhaps more than we are – despite his size. Though we are removed from the hero’s consciousness, we feel he is both naïve of his circuitous desires, but also disturbingly manipulative. This contradiction, this naïvete matched with perturbing self-possession, concerns the reader – how aware am I of my own desires? We are moved, our uncertainty of the hero’s self-awareness is never satisfied. We observe the seeming naïvete and it enlightens us to our own short commings of self-awareness. “To see someone who does not see is the best way to be intensely aware of what he does not see” argued Barthes, and it is precisely the salient power of If you give a mouse a cookie.
He’s going to ask for a glass of milk.
When you give him the milk, he’ll probably ask you for a straw.
When he’s finished, he’ll ask for a napkin.
Then he will want to look in a mirror to make sure he doesn’t have a milk mustache.
The godless landscape of If you give a mouse a cookie is one marked by a total secularization of morality and gratification. The parallels to our own secular society, in which we are diminished to figurative animals - beasts of pure will driven in the vain effort for satiety of our animalistic desires. Instead of a God, the world within the story is governed by a maternalistic hand - more reminiscent of Neo-Marxian doctrine of entitlement than it is to the classical Judeo-Chrisitan rule of centuries past. Instead of being ruled by virtue, or protagonist is ruled by the ever-demanding "want!" of his body. Cookies, milk, soft bedding, but no time for self reflection, no orison nor even secular gratitude is shared by our profane hero. We compare the mouse's struggle for "want" to the Defoe's struggle for need in Robinson Crusoe, and we are dismayed at the descent from virtue of our present day society, in which our vices and excesses have supplanted our virtues and reservations.
In his gustatory pursuits, we observe his coy glances, his polite demeanor, but ultimately his ingratitude. And what disturbs us as the reader is his humanlike disposition, his canny vanity, his concern with appearances and hygienic preoccupations, and his servility to routine. His look into the pierglass is so human that one expects to see our diminutive friend the next time we check for our own milk-mustaches – the parodic symbol of self-indulgence and minor fall from poise. The vanity implicit in our héros de rongeurs is startling parallel to our own fall from grace, manifest in Milton's Paradise Lost. Despite his many pleasures, his many "wants" they are startlingly mundane to us, they are self-serving but unambitious. He foregoes the search for self-discovery, for transcendent pleasure, for the pleasures of immediacy, which feed his vanity and his comfort. His look into the mirror reveals to us a world of pleasures forgone, given up, in the vain restraints of society, with which he is disturbingly complicit. His concern for his milk-mustache, his imagined need for a haircut - a purely imaginary need for our rodent friend, one which is purely vain and removed from true necessity, disturbs us, but warms us to him. He is made more human to us, but that is precisely the element which disturbs us and makes us question our own vain pursuits.
But our hero’s desires are manifold. What begins as a novel of unhealthy appetite of necessity and hunger, become a hunger for a higher appetite: the hunger for the aesthetic.
He’ll probably ask you to read him a story. So you’ll read him one from one of your books, and he’ll ask to see the pictures. When he looks at the pictures, he’ll get so excited he’ll want to draw one of his own. He’ll ask for paper and crayons.What began as low hierarchical needs (according to Maszlow), rises with expediency to needs of self-realization in his pursuit for artistic expression. This passage is the greatest drop of the mask of our narrator revealing her greater purpose: to expose the mimetic nature of our deepest desires. Upon hearing the story, which we imagine is the very story we are reading – a classical representation of the meta-literary play often attributed to post-modern writers, and seeing the illustrations, he is moved by a previously unknown desire. Due to the constrained world in which the narrative takes place –a small house, presumably in the suburbs, a set-manifestation of the class so brutally satirized – we must consider this desire within the constraint of the story. What moves our hero to request a bedtime story? We can only assume it is a routine he has usurped from his benefactors, a further emulation of their posh lives which they take for granted. The story is so moving to the mouse that he is immediately affected. What author can claim artistic impulse in a void? Certainly no contemporary author is without his or her literary influences. Literature too is circuitous in its search for the truth: every author seeks the “answers” behind his characters, behind his plot, behind the meaning of his life’s work, but each author usurps his questions from his literary forefathers (or foremothers). Where is literature without Homer? Without Sophocles or Plato, Plutarch? The question we are never answered is what moved the unnamed author of the unknown bedtime story to write it? We know only that our bourgeois protagonist seeks emulation of that art.
If you give a mouse a cookie ends with an almost Borgesian nihilism: “ Looking at the refrigerator will remind him that he’s thirsty so…he’ll ask for a glass of milk. And chances are if he asks for a glass of milk, he’s going to want a cookie to go with it.” Thus desire begets desire, begets desire – the search for fulfillment is endless, and our hero is left always hungry for something new, but can never identify what that is. We are left haunted by this “children’s” story, but the foolishness of the petite protagonist, who wants big things – but those “big things” seem very small to us. It makes the reader turn in upon himself/herself and wonder: what do I want? And what is the ultimate path of my “wants”? Can I ever be fulfilled or am I resigned to the mazy route of routine-desire?
Imagine waking up to realize the fruition of your ultimate desire is only the begetting of more desires? Desires of things which you only believe that you want? Chilling.
May 9, 2023
I wanted to go to my newfound happy zone after some stress earlier today, Sadly This time it's not as fun as last two times.
Bear with me this review, because right now i can't see this from a kid's point of view sadly to be fair.
Last two children books had multiple characters, with multiple personalities, and intricate sense of humor, here i laughed like 3 times or something lol.
I like how unexpected the story was for me, Even though it's the most logical things in the world, You give a mouse a cookie he will want a glass of milk, He looks at a refrigerator he will realize he is thirsty!, granted that doesn't happen to me, as i rarely drink refrigerated water, but that mouse is really sensible lol.
I liked the picture drawn by the mouse of him and his family, i would like to hang that in my room somewhere too!
Bear with me this review, because right now i can't see this from a kid's point of view sadly to be fair.
Last two children books had multiple characters, with multiple personalities, and intricate sense of humor, here i laughed like 3 times or something lol.
I like how unexpected the story was for me, Even though it's the most logical things in the world, You give a mouse a cookie he will want a glass of milk, He looks at a refrigerator he will realize he is thirsty!, granted that doesn't happen to me, as i rarely drink refrigerated water, but that mouse is really sensible lol.
I liked the picture drawn by the mouse of him and his family, i would like to hang that in my room somewhere too!
October 15, 2019
If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, Laura Joffe Numeroff
A boy gives a cookie to a mouse. The mouse asks for a glass of milk. He then requests a straw (to drink the milk), a mirror (to avoid a milk mustache), nail scissors (to trim his hair in the mirror), and a broom (to sweep up his hair trimmings). Next he wants to take a nap, have a story read to him, draw a picture, and hang the drawing on the refrigerator. Looking at the refrigerator makes him thirsty, so the mouse asks for a glass of milk. The circle is complete when he wants a cookie to go with it.
تاریخ نخستین خوان: روز پانزدهم ماه اکتبر سال 2015 میلادی
عنوان: اگر به یک موش شیرینی بدهی؛ نویسنده: لورا نامروف؛ تصویرگر: فیلیسیا بوند (باند)؛ مترجم: مژگان کلهر؛ تهران: سیمای شرق، کتابهای زرافه، 1393؛ در 36 ص، مصور، شابک: 9786006628363؛ موضوع: داستان خیال انگیز بازیهای کودکان از نویسندگان ایالات متحده آمریکا - سده 20 م
عنوان: اگر شما یک شیرینی به یک موش بدهید...؛ نویسنده لورا نامروف ؛ تصویرگر: فیلیسا باند ؛ مترجم: محبوبه ساطع؛ اصفهان : ویراسته ، 1392؛ در 24 ص؛ مصور رنگی؛ شابک: 9786009055197؛ گروه سنی ب؛
کتاب کودک «اگر به یک موش شیرینی بدهی…» داستان موشی است، که وقتی به او یک شیرینی بدهید، یک لیوان شیر هم میخواهد. شیرش را که تمام کرد، میخواهد توی آینه خودش را ببیند، که سبیلش شیری شده یا نه. در آینه که ��گاه میکند، میفهمد که باید موهایش را مرتب کند و…؛ ا. شربیانی
A boy gives a cookie to a mouse. The mouse asks for a glass of milk. He then requests a straw (to drink the milk), a mirror (to avoid a milk mustache), nail scissors (to trim his hair in the mirror), and a broom (to sweep up his hair trimmings). Next he wants to take a nap, have a story read to him, draw a picture, and hang the drawing on the refrigerator. Looking at the refrigerator makes him thirsty, so the mouse asks for a glass of milk. The circle is complete when he wants a cookie to go with it.
تاریخ نخستین خوان: روز پانزدهم ماه اکتبر سال 2015 میلادی
عنوان: اگر به یک موش شیرینی بدهی؛ نویسنده: لورا نامروف؛ تصویرگر: فیلیسیا بوند (باند)؛ مترجم: مژگان کلهر؛ تهران: سیمای شرق، کتابهای زرافه، 1393؛ در 36 ص، مصور، شابک: 9786006628363؛ موضوع: داستان خیال انگیز بازیهای کودکان از نویسندگان ایالات متحده آمریکا - سده 20 م
عنوان: اگر شما یک شیرینی به یک موش بدهید...؛ نویسنده لورا نامروف ؛ تصویرگر: فیلیسا باند ؛ مترجم: محبوبه ساطع؛ اصفهان : ویراسته ، 1392؛ در 24 ص؛ مصور رنگی؛ شابک: 9786009055197؛ گروه سنی ب؛
کتاب کودک «اگر به یک موش شیرینی بدهی…» داستان موشی است، که وقتی به او یک شیرینی بدهید، یک لیوان شیر هم میخواهد. شیرش را که تمام کرد، میخواهد توی آینه خودش را ببیند، که سبیلش شیری شده یا نه. در آینه که ��گاه میکند، میفهمد که باید موهایش را مرتب کند و…؛ ا. شربیانی
November 13, 2018
3 Cookie ★'s
If You Give a Mouse a Cookie is an okay picture book, it's not a favorite of mine that's for sure but at the same time, it is really cute. I found this one to be a bit boring and it actually kinda annoyed me. The illustrations weren’t very colorful nor were they bold enough. The story does not have the deepest meaning, but overall... Meh, it's an okay book for children, I guess. I won't be reading it again though, once was plenty.
If You Give a Mouse a Cookie is an okay picture book, it's not a favorite of mine that's for sure but at the same time, it is really cute. I found this one to be a bit boring and it actually kinda annoyed me. The illustrations weren’t very colorful nor were they bold enough. The story does not have the deepest meaning, but overall... Meh, it's an okay book for children, I guess. I won't be reading it again though, once was plenty.
July 29, 2017
Every time, somebody says Cookie or mouse, it is impossible for me to not repeat the entire title.
Funny and unique. This poem is innovative and entertains amazingly.
Funny and unique. This poem is innovative and entertains amazingly.
December 2, 2017
Although I do have to admit that Laura Joffe Numeroff's If You Give a Mouse a Cookie is a cute and entertainingly sweet enough little story (and I also realise that young children often tend to much love cumulative tales and perhaps even guessing what might occur next, what might the next scenario be), personally (and having first read If You Give a Mouse a Cookie as an older adult in my late 40s), I am left more than a bit underwhelmed and unmoved (as even Felicia Bond's accompanying illustrations seem rather unspectacular and much too gaudy and cartoon like, even rather strangely unrealistic for my personal aesthetic tastes).
For I guess I just generally do much prefer stories (and even with regard to picture books for younger children) that have a bit more substance and plot, that have more of an actual story to them with conflicts and resolutions. And while I could well and definitely imagine reading If You Give a Mouse a Cookie aloud to a small child or to a group of small children (and that this could and would likely be a hit, a major audience success), I also would most likely not all that much enjoy having to read If You Give a Mouse a Cookie repeatedly or rather being asked to read it over and over again (as I think this could rapidly become majorly tedious and annoying for me), but then again, considering that I also had similarly simple German language picture books with which I kind of tortured my parents and grandparents with my constant demands of having them read to me when I was very young, I probably should not be so overly and massively critical here.
For I guess I just generally do much prefer stories (and even with regard to picture books for younger children) that have a bit more substance and plot, that have more of an actual story to them with conflicts and resolutions. And while I could well and definitely imagine reading If You Give a Mouse a Cookie aloud to a small child or to a group of small children (and that this could and would likely be a hit, a major audience success), I also would most likely not all that much enjoy having to read If You Give a Mouse a Cookie repeatedly or rather being asked to read it over and over again (as I think this could rapidly become majorly tedious and annoying for me), but then again, considering that I also had similarly simple German language picture books with which I kind of tortured my parents and grandparents with my constant demands of having them read to me when I was very young, I probably should not be so overly and massively critical here.
September 25, 2014
I enjoy children's books more as an adult than I ever did as a child. Perhaps, this is because I can see past the cutesy bullshit and appreciate the adult agenda within them. For example, The Butter Battle Book is far more chilling when read as an adult coping with our nuclear reality. And Tango Makes Three introduces children to homosexuality, while The Berenstein Bears introduces children to how Pappa Berenstein hates foreigners.
Who's really surprised?
If You Give a Mouse a Cookie is both a lesson about the very adult dangers of kindness, and can even be interpreted as a warning against welfare. (I don't know enough to have a proper opinion on the welfare debate, but I appreciate that a childrens book can even raise that question.) It's impact might be lost on child readers, but I believe the exposure to such concepts is good for their minds. 5/5 stars for asking troubling questions.
Who's really surprised?
If You Give a Mouse a Cookie is both a lesson about the very adult dangers of kindness, and can even be interpreted as a warning against welfare. (I don't know enough to have a proper opinion on the welfare debate, but I appreciate that a childrens book can even raise that question.) It's impact might be lost on child readers, but I believe the exposure to such concepts is good for their minds. 5/5 stars for asking troubling questions.
April 14, 2008
I know a ton of people love this book, but not me. The illustrations aren't horrible and neither are they uniquely memorable; moreover, the story is uninteresting and bland. What type of thought went into this book anyway? I've met Laura and she's a nice lady, but give me a break! The story is cute, but it is just a bland series of partially logical observations made by the author about this mouse.
If Laura can come up with a book like this and publish it, then I have lost a lot of confidence in the quality of children's book out in the market-not too mention the motives of publishers (hmmm...money not quality). I could come up with something similar, so let me try (I might just publish it later).
If you give a dog some food he might want some water. If you give a dog some water he might want a walk. If you give a dog a walk he might want a snack. If you give a dog a snack he might want a nap....get my boring drift.
If Laura can come up with a book like this and publish it, then I have lost a lot of confidence in the quality of children's book out in the market-not too mention the motives of publishers (hmmm...money not quality). I could come up with something similar, so let me try (I might just publish it later).
If you give a dog some food he might want some water. If you give a dog some water he might want a walk. If you give a dog a walk he might want a snack. If you give a dog a snack he might want a nap....get my boring drift.
June 8, 2010
There's a good amount of happy nostalgia associated with this book for me, so, the bad is that it makes it hard for me to review this objectively, but, the good is that obviously I loved it when I was little. And, I can still see why! The illustrations are adorable and the absurdity of the antics of this helpful little mouse are delightful! I can appreciate now the 'helpful' actions of the mouse reflecting those of children who 'help' mom in the kitchen (i.e. cooking breakfast while leaving a huge mess behind) as well as the exhaustion that comes with taking care of something. I also adore (now and when I was little) the scale of everything: the mouse in relation to the cookie, the tiny box for the mouse to sleep in, etc. All in all, a whole lot of fun!
August 10, 2022
Do NOT get me started on this little mouse. No way he found overalls that small.
July 12, 2015
'If You Give a Mouse a Cookie' is one that I would use to teach the children in my class 'cause and effect,' sequencing, and various procedures for everyday life. I enjoyed how with each occurrence the author prompted another one, which is a great way to help children to understand how items or events are paired and how one action leads to another. For example, at the beginning of the story the cookie leads to the mouse wanting milk, then in the end, after a long chain of cause and effect events, the cycle also ends with a cookie and milk. By having children guess what may happen or what they would want to happen, the story is a great gateway to classroom discussions that create higher levels of thinking in young children.
May 28, 2010
Well, I just reread this for the June Picture Books Club at the Children's Books group. The theme for the month of June is culinary.
My favorite of this series has always been If You Give a Moose a Muffin. I like the alliteration, the moose, the humor best of all.
But, this is a fun book too. I like all of Laura Joffe Numeroff's "If You..." books. They're very engaging.
My favorite of this series has always been If You Give a Moose a Muffin. I like the alliteration, the moose, the humor best of all.
But, this is a fun book too. I like all of Laura Joffe Numeroff's "If You..." books. They're very engaging.
February 6, 2009
I know, it probably seems odd for a 23 year old to give a children's book such a good review, but this has always been, and still is, one of my all time favorite books. If You Give a Mouse a Cookie was one of the first books that I read. It was in my elementary school's library, and if you go to that school and find the book it probably still has my name stamped in the back of it a hundred times. I love the continuous progression of the story and the mouse's needs. It is sure to make any child laugh and possibly some adults, too. One thing is for certain, the mouse in the book is the neediest mouse I've ever met!
October 16, 2009
While I read this as a child, I decided to re-read it again as my wife has not read any of the quintessential childrens books.
As an adult reading this book to an adult, there are a few things to note: (SPOILER ALERT)
1) Mice are messy
2) Apparently, kids will clean up after the messes that mice leave
3) Mice are much better at drawing pictures than children
4) Stranger Danger doesn't extend into the word of critters
-Nick
As an adult reading this book to an adult, there are a few things to note: (SPOILER ALERT)
1) Mice are messy
2) Apparently, kids will clean up after the messes that mice leave
3) Mice are much better at drawing pictures than children
4) Stranger Danger doesn't extend into the word of critters
-Nick
December 25, 2022
Wow. Talk about a page turner. This book had me guessing ever page. This is definitely not for the faint of heart and can be very academic at times but yet I found it quite devotional. This book made me laugh, cry, smile, and most of all strive to be a better man. The setting gives such rich foreshadowing to the plot but yet there are so many miscellaneous surprises along the way. With so many metaphors, I would almost say this book is an allegory for the readers life. What would u do if you were a mouse and given a cookie. Bet yet your not a mouse. You are a human. What does the Cookie represent? I’ve been asking myself this question since I opened the book. Simply put. IDK! The authors intent could for the reader to interpret the cookie as a life circumstance or a gift of some sort. But that’s where I fall on my knees in bewilderment at my finite brain trying to comprehend this masterpiece of a book. Thank-you Laura Numeroff for your book and by God’s Grace I am a better man for it.
June 20, 2016
This book is either an innocent fun and silly story...
or its a first childhood look at conceptual social critique on the inherent consequences of social welfare... You tell me.
All jokes aside, this book is adorable, with wonderful illustrations.
or its a first childhood look at conceptual social critique on the inherent consequences of social welfare... You tell me.
All jokes aside, this book is adorable, with wonderful illustrations.
March 3, 2015
What a nice and well-mannered little mouse :)
February 20, 2011
Okay well, I guess I'm about the only person in the world who thinks these books stink. Even Julia disagrees with me and we had an entire conversation with each of us stating our points after we read this. (She's quite the debater for not yet being 6 years old.)
I don't find these books enjoyable AT ALL. In fact, I'll reiterate my thoughts for the slow ones out there - I think THEY STINK.
Who can't write this? Rocks can't I guess. Slugs. Water bugs. A few others. Most humans can I think. Well, most humans with a few brain cells still kicking can. I think you could take some 78 year old crackhead who has been huffing paint and gas for the past 58 years, give him a pen, a piece of paper, and while dangling a crack rock in front of him, tell him to write a mediocre story and you'd have something along the lines of this masterpiece right here.
How does this happen? Do you just have to get lucky? Can I get lucky like this chick? Do I even want to be lucky like her? Then I'd have to own up to actually writing this mess.
By the way, the reason this isn't getting one star is because my kid refused to let me. She insisted we compromise. I said one star, she said five. So she made me add an extra star. I can't help but feel I got over on her. I wonder what she'll say when she grows up and reads this? :-D
I love you Juliebug!!
I don't find these books enjoyable AT ALL. In fact, I'll reiterate my thoughts for the slow ones out there - I think THEY STINK.
Who can't write this? Rocks can't I guess. Slugs. Water bugs. A few others. Most humans can I think. Well, most humans with a few brain cells still kicking can. I think you could take some 78 year old crackhead who has been huffing paint and gas for the past 58 years, give him a pen, a piece of paper, and while dangling a crack rock in front of him, tell him to write a mediocre story and you'd have something along the lines of this masterpiece right here.
How does this happen? Do you just have to get lucky? Can I get lucky like this chick? Do I even want to be lucky like her? Then I'd have to own up to actually writing this mess.
By the way, the reason this isn't getting one star is because my kid refused to let me. She insisted we compromise. I said one star, she said five. So she made me add an extra star. I can't help but feel I got over on her. I wonder what she'll say when she grows up and reads this? :-D
I love you Juliebug!!
June 2, 2018
Este libro es muy famoso en inglés. Sin saberlo, se lo compré a mi hija de 3 años, ya que le gusta mucho los libros. Es una lectura de fácil compresión que trata sobre un ratón y sus interminables deseos.
July 29, 2012
What can I say, one of my favorite contemporary children's books because if I had to describe myself as a book character, I'm definitely the mouse!!
December 27, 2016
WAYYYYYY TO LONG,LONGEST BOOK IVE EVER READ(The mouse gets the cookie)
February 23, 2012
This book was so sweet! The illustrations are colorful and eye-catching, as well as the characters soon become loved in each page. I thought the story line was perfectly planned out in the tale of events of the mouse and the small boy that makes a small friend by showing he cares. I think this book would be a wonderful addition to any school or home library because it specifically teaches on character building for young children, I believe. The care and kindness of the little boy in the story towards giving the mouse everything he might need shows the friendly, compassion that children can exhibit to their friends and family. It can also be beneficial in a classroom as a school may encourage students to exhibit the 'Pillars of Character' seen in many schools I know of today. Even more specifically, children could have a discussion with their parents or school class about the specific qualities that they too can exhibit in kindness and generousity towards others, as the child did in this story. With the energetic illustrations and easy-to-read progression of the book, it is sure to be a family and classroom favorite!
December 9, 2014
Summary and Critique:
This has always been one of my favorite books because it was one of the first books i ever learned how to read. It was about a mouse who gets a cookie, but one he gets the cookie he wants milk and once he gets milk he wants a straw. It was just a progression of events that all lead about to the fact that you gave the mouse a cookie. He is never satisfied until the very end when he is finally done needing stuff. Very cute children's book for beginner readers.
Classroom use: Since this book is for such young kids, i would have them do a drawing assignment of their favorite part with a few sentences explaining what they drew with the help of me.
Genre: Comedy, humor
Format: picture back with little text
Grade level: PreK- 3rd grade
Theme/topic: Sharing, compassion
Gender, race/ethnicity, socioeconomic status: None were involved in this book
Citation: Numeroff, L., & Bond, F. (1985). If you give a mouse a cookie. New York: Harper & Row.
This has always been one of my favorite books because it was one of the first books i ever learned how to read. It was about a mouse who gets a cookie, but one he gets the cookie he wants milk and once he gets milk he wants a straw. It was just a progression of events that all lead about to the fact that you gave the mouse a cookie. He is never satisfied until the very end when he is finally done needing stuff. Very cute children's book for beginner readers.
Classroom use: Since this book is for such young kids, i would have them do a drawing assignment of their favorite part with a few sentences explaining what they drew with the help of me.
Genre: Comedy, humor
Format: picture back with little text
Grade level: PreK- 3rd grade
Theme/topic: Sharing, compassion
Gender, race/ethnicity, socioeconomic status: None were involved in this book
Citation: Numeroff, L., & Bond, F. (1985). If you give a mouse a cookie. New York: Harper & Row.
August 22, 2018
বাংলায় একটা প্রবাদ আছে "বসতে দিলে শুতে চায়"; এই গল্পের Shoulder Strap Jeans পড়া আদুরে ইঁদুরটার অবস্থা হয়েছে তেমন। প্রথমে খেতে চেয়েছিলো কুকি, সেই কুকি খেতে গিয়ে তাকে বিছানা পেতে শুতে দিতে হয়েছে। শুধু তাই না, তাকে ঘুম পাড়ানোর জন্য আবার গল্পও শোনাতে হবে!
গল্পের একটা মজাটা হলো বাস্তবের বসতে দিলে শুতে চাওয়া মানুষের মতো ইঁদুরের কান্ডকারখানা বিরক্তির উদ্রেক ঘটায় না। বরং উজ্জ্বল ছবি দেখতে দেখতে ইঁদুরের সপ্তকান্ড পড়তে বেশ ভালো লাগে!
গল্পের একটা মজাটা হলো বাস্তবের বসতে দিলে শুতে চাওয়া মানুষের মতো ইঁদুরের কান্ডকারখানা বিরক্তির উদ্রেক ঘটায় না। বরং উজ্জ্বল ছবি দেখতে দেখতে ইঁদুরের সপ্তকান্ড পড়তে বেশ ভালো লাগে!
July 2, 2015
This series of books is ADOOORRRRABLE!!! I loved it & try to give it as gifts to little ones (3& up age group) when I can find it. Simply darling :-))
August 29, 2019
Adorable.
Sort of like ' Give 'em an inch and they'll take a yard '
Sort of like ' Give 'em an inch and they'll take a yard '
May 4, 2023
This is me if I was given a cookie too
March 6, 2023
“Heat no cap no cap straight bussin bussin. This book was truly an eye opener to the complexities of the human mind and its desires. Truly a must read” -Phil
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