40 Fun Facts About Laura Numeroff

Before settling on a mouse, Laura Numeroff pictured a zebra getting orange dust on its face from which snack?

Cheetos were what the zebra ate in her daydream of animals eating her own favourite foods. Next came an orangutan tangled in strings of pizza cheese, then the mouse.

In Laura Numeroff's If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, which request leaves the mouse checking a mirror for a mustache?

A glass of milk is his first request, and a straw and a napkin soon follow. By the last page he is thirsty again and wants a cookie to go with his drink.

Laura Numeroff loved selling cookies as a Girl Scout and still names which Girl Scout cookie as her favourite?

Thin Mints were her favourites as a girl and still are. She stayed in the Girl Scouts for years and says selling the cookies was the part she enjoyed most.

Which Harrison Ford thriller quotes the title of If You Give a Mouse a Cookie as a warning against appeasing terrorists?

Air Force One has the president, hiding aboard his hijacked plane, begin the book's title down the phone, and the vice-president finishes the thought. It is his way of telling her not to negotiate.

Which talk show host featured Laura Numeroff's If You Give a Pig a Pancake three times in a single year?

Oprah Winfrey also recommended it through her first kids' book club and called it her favourite children's book of the year on her holiday special.

Laura Numeroff credits which classic children's novel about a mouse in New York City with making her a writer?

Stuart Little, by E. B. White, won her heart as a child, even over Charlotte's Web. Its publisher later became the home of her own famous mouse.

Six years after If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, Laura Numeroff's first sequel handed a muffin to which animal?

A moose turns up in the 1991 follow-up and asks for jam with his muffin. Then he wants more baked, which means an outing to the shop in a borrowed sweater.

Which First Lady read Laura Numeroff's If You Give a Mouse a Cookie aloud at the White House Easter Egg Roll?

Michelle Obama read it on the White House lawn with her mother and her daughters, Malia and Sasha, beside her.

Which long-running newspaper comic built two strips around Laura Numeroff's If You Give a Mouse a Cookie?

Peanuts creator Charles Schulz drew two strips about the book. The series' illustrator had studied his work for years and credits him with a lasting impression on her.

Laura Numeroff, the youngest of three girls, was born and raised in which borough of New York City?

Brooklyn is where she grew up surrounded by art, music and books, with a father who worked on the art staff of a New York newspaper.

Laura Numeroff dreamed up If You Give a Mouse a Cookie to fight boredom during what?

A long car trip left her so bored that she began picturing animals eating her favourite foods. Back home she typed the story up on a second-hand typewriter with a wonky W.

Which illustrator, who hides names of family and pets in her art, drew all of Laura Numeroff's If You Give books?

Felicia Bond was chosen by the book's editor rather than by the author, and has drawn every title since. She borrowed the name-hiding habit from caricaturist Al Hirschfeld.

In Laura Numeroff's If You Give a Pig a Pancake, which sticky extra sends the pig off to take a bath?

Maple syrup makes her so sticky that she needs a bath, and the bath calls for a rubber duck. Much later, sticky wallpaper reminds her of it and the whole chain starts again.

Laura Numeroff's If You Take a Mouse to the Movies, nine weeks a number one bestseller, unfolds around which holiday?

Christmas runs through the whole outing, which leads on to snowmen, snow forts, buying a tree and making ornaments.

In which Asian capital was an entire city bus painted with pictures of Laura Numeroff's cookie-loving Mouse?

Tokyo gave Mouse a whole city bus, a sign of how far the series has travelled. The books have been translated into more than a dozen languages.

Laura Numeroff was an executive producer when which company made If You Give a Mouse a Cookie an animated series?

Amazon picked the show up from a pilot, and it ran for two seasons with holiday specials for Halloween and Valentine's Day.

Laura Numeroff's picture book Raising a Hero follows Max, a puppy with a lot to learn before becoming what?

A service dog is what Max trains to be, earning a yellow vest with his puppy raiser, Sam. Part of the book's sales goes to a charity that provides such dogs free of charge.

Laura Numeroff grew up in New York but has long made her home in which West Coast city?

Los Angeles is her home base, and from there she has visited more than 100 elementary schools as an author.

Laura Numeroff's life story, written at a second-grade reading level, is titled If You Give an Author a what?

Pencil completes the title of her 2003 autobiography, which she pitched at second graders so that children could read it for themselves.

Which storybook girl, at home in New York's Plaza Hotel, starred in one of Laura Numeroff's favourite childhood books?

Eloise, by Kay Thompson, shares the credit for making her a writer. Its publisher, Simon & Schuster, went on to publish several of her own books.

Which three-word motto does Laura Numeroff take from the nine rejections her most famous manuscript collected?

Never give up is the lesson she shares on school visits. The call accepting the story came just after a break-up, when she says she was miserable.

Laura Numeroff's Monster Munchies joined the Beginner Books line that began with which Dr. Seuss classic?

The Cat in the Hat launched the line in 1957, and she adored it as a child. She calls landing in the same series a thrill.

Laura Numeroff's own parody of If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, written for adults, hands the cookie to whom?

A man is the helpless hero of the 2017 parody, a woman's wry commentary that follows him from bed to bathroom to couch and back to bed.

Laura Numeroff and co-creator Sean Hanrahan raised the money to publish Raising a Hero on which crowdfunding site?

Kickstarter funded what became her first independently published children's book. She met Hanrahan when he came to fix her dated website.

In Laura Numeroff's If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, the mouse asks for a pair of nail scissors to do what?

Trim his hair is the plan once he sees himself in the mirror. Then he wants a broom to sweep up the trimmings, and after that a blanket for a nap.

Laura Numeroff first went to art college to study which subject, hoping to copy an older sibling's career?

Fashion design was her idol Emily's field, but she hated the department and could not sew. She switched to classes she liked, such as photography, animation and radio broadcasting.

Which singer-songwriter, known for the 1994 hit Stay, wrote songs for the animated If You Give a Mouse a Cookie series?

Lisa Loeb composed 13 tracks for the first season and six more for the second. The show's head writer supplied most of the lyrics.

Profits from Laura Numeroff's 10-Step Guide to Living with Your Monster helped fund which actor's research foundation?

Michael J. Fox set up his foundation to fund Parkinson's research, and a share of the profits from her deadpan pet-care guide for monster owners went to it.

Laura Numeroff's first book, Amy for Short, began as college homework and stars a third grader known for being what?

The tallest in class is Amy's problem, though the author herself never was. Macmillan bought the story after four rejections, so she graduated with a degree and a book contract.

In Laura Numeroff's If You Give a Dog a Donut, which drink does the dog want, sending him out to pick fruit?

Apple juice goes so well with his donut that he asks for seconds, and when it runs out he skateboards outside to pick apples and make more.

Laura Numeroff sold her first book just before graduating from which well-known New York art school?

Pratt Institute was the only college she applied to, because an older sibling had studied there. A course on making children's books, taken in her last semester, changed her plans.

Which publisher turned down Laura Numeroff's If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, then bought it once a new editor arrived?

Harper & Row was her first choice because it had published a childhood favourite of hers. It said no, and a string of other houses followed, before she tried it again.

The new editor who finally accepted If You Give a Mouse a Cookie happened to share what with Laura Numeroff?

Her first name, Laura, belonged to the editor too. The author sent the story in as soon as she heard about the newcomer, and a phone call brought the offer.

Laura Numeroff's first nine books, all published before If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, shared which feature?

She illustrated them herself, but later decided that her strength lay in writing. She has said she would no longer take on the pictures for a whole book.

The boy in Laura Numeroff's If You Give a Mouse a Cookie was drawn to look like whom as a child?

The artist's boyfriend, Stephen Roxburgh, was the model, pictured as the child he once was. She raced through the sketches before leaving town with him, and says that rush gave the mouse its energy.

Which Seinfeld star read Laura Numeroff's If You Take a Mouse to the Movies for its book-and-tape edition?

Jason Alexander, who played George Costanza, narrated the cassette, which came with a miniature copy of the book and festive songs by Sarah Weeks.

In Laura Numeroff's Beatrice Doesn't Want To, where does Henry have to take Beatrice while he works on a report?

The library is the last place Beatrice wants to be, because she hates books, until a storytelling session changes her mind. The author calls it the favourite of her early titles.

A reader turns Laura Numeroff's What Mommies Do Best into What Daddies Do Best by doing what?

Flipping the book over reveals the second story, told in exactly the same words. Mothers and fathers do identical things in each half, and only the animal pictures differ.

In the ninth picture book of Laura Numeroff's If You Give series, the mouse makes a comeback when he is handed what?

A brownie sets him off this time, and he wants ice cream to go with it. A spoon leads to drumming on the table, and the drumming makes him want to start a band.

Laura Numeroff's If You Give books teach cause and effect because each one is built as what kind of story?

A circular tale ends back at its opening request, so each event visibly causes the next. Parents of autistic children tell the author that this clear chain is why the books click.