If You Take a Mouse to the Movies

If You Take a Mouse to the Movies

(HarperCollins-2000)

By: Laura Numeroff

Illustrated by: Felicia Bond

Grade: 2-3

If You Take a Mouse to the Movies portrays the mouse from If You Give a Mouse a Cookie in a holiday tale. This time, if you take him to the movies, he'll ask you for some popcorn. If you give him the popcorn, he'll want to string it all together. Then he'll want to hang it on a Christmas tree. This mouse is almost never satisfied; once he gets what he asks for, he wants something else. This book is great for younger children to teach them predicting. They can use picture clues to guess what they mouse wants to do next. I love this book because it really capture the holiday spirit.

Theme/Skill: Cause and effect and predicting.

About the Author: Laura Numeroff was born in 1953, in Brooklyn, New York.  I was surrounded by art, music, and books. Her father, William, worked on the art staff of the World Telegram & Sun, one of New York's major newspapers. Her mother, Florence, was a junior high school home economics teacher.  
She started writing her own stories and drew pictures to go with them. She would make a bookcover for them and write down the name of a publisher. She had a library 5 blocks from her house and she became addicting, renting as many books as were allowed. She briefly wanted to follow in her sister's path to become a fashion designer but soon realized that was not for her. She ended up graduating college with a degree and a contract for her first book! She is a very talented book author. Laura Numeroff's Bio

Pre-Reading Activities: Brainstorm- What will happen if you take a mouse to the movies? It would be really cute to see how the students' brains work and the situations they could come up with.

Post Reading Activities: Give the students story starters and make them create their own story. Laura has numerous books that begin "if you take a mouse...", "if you give a mouse...". Give students options and allow them to create their own plot and characters.