If you give a mouse a cookie

Melanie Orr

Children’s Literacy

If You Give A Mouse A Cookie

Illustration By Felicia Bond

Summary:  A little boy gives a mouse a cookie and after that the mouse asks for more and more.  In the end the mouse starts all over again asking for a cookie.

Genre: Fantasy

Illustrations:  The pictures in the book are very descriptive of what is happening in the story.  The book explains with illustration on each step the mouse takes, from asking for milk to asking for a crayon to draw. The colors are playful, bright, and young.  The pictures are drawn and do not look painted.  The book doesn’t tell exactly what the illustrator used to make the pictures.  Some of the pictures have great detail, example is when the young boy is in the kitchen trying to find the mouse a straw.  In other illustrations the drawings are big and vivid of the mouse and whatever action he is taking in the book.

Literary Elements:  Setting, The setting of the story takes place in a house in what seems to be a pretty nice neighborhood.  The setting of this story is a backdrop of what the story is about.  When the boy goes into a cabinet then the setting is in a kitchen area.  If the mouse wants to look into the mirror the two of them-mouse and boy are in the bathroom looking into a mirror.  The moue is given a glass of milk with a straw and the picture and setting visually explain this.

Characterization:  The characters in this story are flat.  The main characters in this story are the young boy and the mouse.  In the story its like the mouse is the child and the young boy is a parent.  He is constantly catering to and cleaning after the mouse.  With this in mind the pictures display the annoyance the little boy has sometimes with chasing after the mouse getting him what he wants.  At one point in the book, right before the end, the boy takes a seat in exhaustion.  The pictures accurately display the mood of the boy as well as the mouse.  The mouse excitement is conveyed through his happiness, hand gestures, and jumping up in down in the book. 

Plot:  Plot of the story is episodic and self against nature.  The nature in this book is the mouse.  The beginning is about giving the mouse what he wants, a cookie.  Then throughout the book the mouse request more and the mood of the story changes.  So the plot starts off pretty steady until the mouse ask for different things and it increases and then goes back down to the original request, a cookie.    

Theme:  If you give a mouse a cookie he is going to want much more than just a cookie.

Style:  As before, the illustrations in the book are an accurate description of what the story is about.  The story is not told in first person, but refers to the mouse as “He” so I think the story is told in 3^rd person.  The mouse has human like characteristics and is treated like he is human.  Example, “He’ll star sweeping, He might get carried away and sweep every room in the house.”  The language in the book is English.  The mouse really never talks but the language is told from the point of view of the author.  I think that the book has elements of what a mouse really does, besides sweeping, drawing, and a few other things.  A mouse typically gets into everything when they raid your house and the underlying idea is that this mouse is all over the place.

Reflection:  This is a great book for children.  I could see myself reading this book to a class and bringing in cookies for everyone to share.  Reading this book and showing children can be very engaging for children.  They would be excited and maybe even predict what will happen next in the story.  When a child wants a cookie the next thing they may want is milk and this story is great at predicting what will happen next.  I would recommend this book because it is an easy read and fun.  The language is easy to understand.  Children will enjoy the illustrations as well.  I think its just the cutest book, I enjoyed reading it.