If You Give a Mouse a Cookie
 |
"If you give a mouse a cookie, he's going to ask for a glass of milk."
—If You Give a Mouse a Cookie
|
 |
If You Give a Mouse a Cookie is a children's picture book written by Laura Numeroff and illustrated by Felicia Bond. Each page has a large, colorful picture and short sentence telling the story of a (nameless yet, oddly, eponymous) mouse and an equally nameless boy. The story starts, naturally, with the boy giving the mouse a cookie. The story goes on from there, with the mouse needing a new item on each page. It ends up with the mouse, once again, wanting a cookie.
The many, many sequels (If You Give a Moose a Muffin, If You Give a Pig a Pancake, If You Give a Bear a Brownie, If You Give a Cat a Cupcake, If You Give a Dog a Donut) all follow approximately the same plot, with variations on the animal and food item.
Tropes used in If You Give a Mouse a Cookie include:
- A Boy and His X: A boy and his mouse.
- Exactly What It Says on the Tin: The book is about a mouse. Who wants a cookie.
- Here We Go Again: The last page has the mouse, once again, wanting a cookie (to go with his glass of milk).
- Nameless Narrative
- Interspecies Friendship
- Second Person Narration
- Stock Animal Diet: Averted. This mouse eats cookies. With milk, of course.
- Talking Animal: The eponymous mouse.