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If you give a child this book, they’ll want you to read the first story: If You Give a Mouse a Cookie. By the last page, they’ll likely crave cookies, too, so they’ll ask you to make Mom’s Old-Fashioned Oatmeal Cookies using the recipe that follows the story. After filling up on cookies, they’ll be full of energy just like Mouse, so they’ll ask you to put on the CD that comes with this book so they can dance and sing to the songs.
The song Wrong Words will remind them that they want to draw a picture of their family, so they’ll turn to page 61 where there is a drawing activity. They’ll become such fans of Mouse that they’ll ask you to read the story again. And chances are, parents will become fans, too, so they’ll read If You Give a Mouse a Cookie again, as well as the next three stories in this book!
Laura Numeroff extends the fun kids can have with her much-loved characters Mouse, Pig and Moose. After reading their stories, children can then bake with them, do activities with them, and sing with them. It’s wonderful to see these characters outside their stories. Seeing Mouse in the kitchen baking Uncle Sydney’s Snickerdoodles, or seeing Pig introduce her writing activity via a wheelbarrow and Moose trying to demonstrate a dance pose, reveals more of the same lively personalities we see in their stories.
For fans of the If you Give… series, Mouse Cookies and More is an indulgence. It contains four complete books, a CD, recipes, activities, and notes. Songs with their accompanying sheet music follow each story, and two pages of illustrations from Felicia Bond’s sketchbook appear at the end of the book - Mouse House Floor Plans, a drawing of a baby Moose, and sketches of Mouse and Pig.
In addition, Numeroff and Bond include notes at the end of every story revealing a fact or tidbit of information about the story or themselves. At the end of If You Give a Moose a Muffin, Bond writes “When I illustrated this book I had three cats, named Otis, Pro, and Mickey. I wrote their names on the pages where Moose is painting.”
Laura Numeroff writes, “When I went to school, my favorite subject was science” at the end of If You Take a Mouse to School.
The CD included with this book contains 12 tracks. Children can learn a moose dance and the Piggy Polka and sing a song about big words. They can follow along with the stories as David Hyde Pierce narrates If You Give a Pig a Pancake and Joan Allen reads If You Take a Mouse to School. In the stories that are narrated, you can hear sound effects like milk being poured into a glass then slurped up a straw. You can listen to Pig tap dancing in her new tap shoes and hear quiet snores as Mouse takes a short nap. The songs, written by Sarah Weeks, and the stories, read aloud by various celebrities, are as entertaining and dynamic as the characters they are about.
Laura Numeroff is the author of the If You Give… books, which also include If You Take a Mouse to the Movies and If You Give a Cat a Cupcake. Her other books include The Chicken Sisters, What Mommies Do Best/What Daddies Do Best, and Two for Stew. Some of the royalties for Mouse Cookies and More: A Treasury will be donated to the organization First Book. Numeroff makes her home in California.
Felicia Bond was inspired to be an artist when she was only five years old. Her illustrations appear in the If You Give… series as well as the picture books Big Red Barn and The Right Number of Elephants. She is also the author of the books The Halloween Play, The Day it Rained Hearts and Poinsettia and the Firefighters. She divides her time between Texas and New Mexico.
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Mouse Cookies and More: A Treasury (If You Give...)