Children's Series Review: The "If You Give..." series by Laura Numeroff and Felicia Bond

Summary for If You Give A Mouse A Cookie:

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 young readers will come away smiling at the antics that tumble like dominoes through the pages of this delightful picture book.

Release Date: 1985 (!)

Age Group: 4-8 years

Source: Gift

Reviewed By: Kelli

 

Review:

Kaitlyn received If You Give a Mouse a Cookie and If You Give a Pig a Pancake from Aunt Kari and Uncle Andrew for Christmas this year.  Can I just say that I think that books make the absolute best gifts?  Thank you, Aunt Kari and Uncle Andrew! Once I saw the covers, I remembered these books from my childhood, and I was so happy to rediscover them with Kaitlyn. 

 

I'm so grateful to Kari for her thoughtful gift because these two If You Give books got Kaitlyn interested in picture books!  I think I'm enjoying this stage of Kaitlyn's reading journey just as much as she is.  I'd gotten so tired of the babyish board books, just because most of them don't have a real story line and are boring for me to read.  I've found myself looking forward to our daily reading time (one to two hours per day), instead of mentally cringing when Kaitlyn would pull down a stack of board books for me to read to her.   

 

The If You Give series is addictive.  It's hard to read just one of these books at a time.  The books are quirky, imaginative, and just plain fun.  The story moves quickly, which keeps Kaitlyn's interest piqued.  She's always surprised at the direction the story will take. 

 

The illustrations are elegantly simple and timeless.  I love how the text is placed within the illustrations.  The text isn't placed on the same spot on every page; instead it's fitted into the illustrations, which makes these books just as visually appealing as they are fun to read and listen to. 

 

Kaitlyn loved the first two books so much, I started buying the other books in the series for her.  So far, we have five books in this series, and I hope to complete our collection.  We usually read all five books back-to-back: they are so fun to read all together! 

 

The only caveat I've found with the If You Give series is that most of the books start with the main character eating something sweet.  And Kaitlyn usually asks for whatever they are eating, whether it's cookies, cake, a donut, or a muffin.  This makes me laugh because these books make me hungry for those foods too!  We've had to talk about how it's the mouse's turn to eat a cookie, not Kaitlyn's turn for a cookie (sometimes this goes over well, and sometimes we end up reading the books with a bowl of cookies in Kaitlyn's lap).

 

The If You Give series is a timeless series, perfect to enjoy with your children aged 2 and up.