If you Take a Mouse to School

If you Take a Mouse to School
Written by Laura Numeroff and Illustrated by Felicia Bond
Publisher: Scholastic Inc., 2002
Grade Level: Pre-K-2
Themes: humor, friendship and sharing

Summary: This is about a mouse and a young boy. They are friends. The boy is going to bring the mouse to school, but the mouse has a lot of requests. Once he asks for one thing, he will need something to go a long with it. There are a series of chain events that take place. If you take a mouse to school, he'll ask for your lunchbox. When you give him your lunchbox, he'll want a sandwich and so on.

Reflection: This is a cute and funny story. The boy is very patient with the mouse and fulfills all his requests even though the mouse is never fully satisfied. The boy shares everything with the mouse. The illustrations are very colorful and they complement the text well. The books in the series are equally as funny and entertaining. Some of them include, If you Give a Dog a Donut, If you Give a Mouse a Cookie, If you Give a Moose a Muffin and If you Give a Cat a Cupcake. These books are perfect for teaching the skill,  sequencing to children.

Pre-Reading: I will discuss with the children what it is like getting ready for school. Is it hard to get up in the morning? Do you make your bed and pick out your own clothes? Do you bring your lunch or buy it? Does it take you a long time to get ready in the morning? Do you have the same routine everyday? What is your routine? I will also draw the children's attention to the pictures and talk about how they go right a long with the text. We can look at the pictures for meaning of the story even if we don't know every word.

Post-Reading: I will have sequencing paper strips with sentences and illustrations on them. We will all work together to put them in order. What happend first in If you Take a Mouse to School? Then what happend and we will keep going until we reach the end of the cycle with the correct order. Then the students will go back to their seats and do the same thing on their own. They will have paper strips with words and illustrations. Then they will paste them in the correct order onto construction paper.

About the Author: 

Laura Numeroff grew up in Brooklyn, NY. She loved reading, drawing and making up stories. Laura thought she wanted to be a fashion designer just like her sister, Emily. She went to Pratt Institute, but her last year there she had no idea what she wanted to do. She took a class in writing and illustrating books for children. Many of her books are printed in different languages for children all over the world to enjoy.