IF YOU GIVE A MOUSE A COOKIE by Laura Joffe Numeroff

This is the first offering of a wonderfully delightful series of like stories for children. If You Give a Mouse A Cookie by Laura Joffe Numeroff and illustrated by Felicia Bond tell the story, and the problems you might run into, if you should happen to give a overly active and demanding mouse a cookie. The story begins with a young boy innocently setting by his sidewalk in front of his house. A hungry mouse comes along and the problems begin.

This is a progressive type of tale, where one act of generosity keeps growing and growing. "If you give a mouse a cookie, he's going to ask for a glass of milk. When you give him milk, he'll probably ask you for a straw. When you give him a straw, he will ask........." And it goes on and on and on until the poor kid pretty well has a completely trashed house and is exhausted trying to fulfill the escalating requests and the subsequent mess the requests ultimately cause. A pushy mouse and cookies, we find, are not a good combination!

The text is delightfully simple and keeps you turning the pages, page after page. You actually find you self wanting to see what the little rodent is going to ask for next. The story is simple and there is no bang, bang, crash crunch plot nor ending. The only problem I find in this aspect is that in this day and age, I find some children (and even more adults), who have the attention span of ferrets on coffee and if the story is in the least bit mellow, their minds simply cannot track. This is a minor problem though, if it is indeed a problem.

The art work by Felicia Bond is quite well done and goes perfectly with the text. The pictures are simple to understand, cute and quite eye catching. I liked them.

Considerations :::
If You Give a Mouse a Cookie has an Accelerated Reading (AR) designation of 2.7 which means that the average 2nd Grader in the 7th month of school should be able to read it without getting frustrated by the vocabulary. It can be read aloud to any age.

This is one of in a series of books by this team. Others include: If you give a Moose a Muffin, If you give a Pig a Pancake, If you take a Mouse to the Movies, If you take a Mouse to School, and If you give a Pig a Party. All are as well done. I have noted in reading this book and others in the series that the kids love them and will always ask for repeat readings.