Kids Books A to Z: N is for Numeroff

Laura J. Numeroff is the children's author who is notorious for giving us the series that started with If You Give a Mouse a Cookie. The series has gone on, almost ad nauseum, featuring more and more roundabout ways in which animals cause troubles for the friends. I like the idea of cause and effect and they make great teaching tools for the kids. I just have never enjoyed one as much as I do that first one. The play based on the book is also cute. We have gone on field trips to see that.


The favorite one in my classroom this year, though, was If You Take a Mouse to the Movies. I pulled out that one around Christmas time. I tried to return it to the school library. On our regular trips there for the children to choose books for the bookshelf, it was immediately chosen again. I guess it will just have to sit there until June!


Another series of hers that I like is the one about what people do best. The one about parents, What Mommies Do Best/What Daddies Do Best is really cute. I used What Grandmas Do Best/What Grandpas Do Best in my classroom the day after my step-grandfather died. It was the only way I could get through my grief that day. I remember my assistant was in tears while I read it, completely in disbelief that I got through it in my sadness.


Numeroff also has several other picture books for kids, as well as an autobiography that is geared toward early elementary.