If You Give a Mouse a Cookie

If You Give a Mouse a Cookie
U.S. Cover
Author(s)	Laura Numeroff
Illustrator	Felicia Bond
Language	English
Genre(s)	Children's literature
Publisher	HarperCollins
Publication date	1985
Followed by	If You Give a Moose a Muffin (1991)

If You Give a Mouse a Cookie (ISBN 0-06-024586-7) is the title of a 1985 book illustrated by Felicia Bond. It is the tenth and best-known book written by Laura Numeroff. Its plot deals with a boy who gives a cookie to a mouse. After eating a cookie, the mouse has some milk. Then he decides to clean his face. This starts simply enough, but the mouse keeps getting distracted and is constantly moving on to other projects, leaving unfinished ones behind. In the end, this leads back around to the mouse wanting another cookie and the boy being so exhausted that he falls asleep on his desk. The book features two characters, a mouse and a boy. Neither character speaks, but their dialogue is reported indirectly by a narrator.

The main character of this story, Mouse, appears in three others: If You Take a Mouse to the Movies, If You Take a Mouse to School, and The Best Mouse Cookie.

The book was so popular that it inspired the If You Give a series, which includes If You Give a Pig a Pancake, If You Give a Moose a Muffin, If You Give a Cat a Cupcake, and If You Give a Bear a Brownie. All the books feature a child and an animal. The child gives a food item and something to go with it to the animal. Then the animal starts constantly getting distracted and leaving finished or unfinished projects to start new ones. Somehow, though, the child and the animal wind up exactly where they started.

Sometimes a character is starred in a book more than once, such as Mouse.

Laura Numeroff is still writing new books in the "If You Give a" series