Laura Numeroff
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40 free Laura Numeroff trivia questions with answers — literature quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Laura Numeroff turned one small rodent and one baked treat into one of the best-loved picture books in America. The story behind it is as good as the book itself: a bored daydream, a pile of rejection letters and a lucky second try with a publisher that had already said no. This quiz collects the fun facts readers ask about most. It covers her New York childhood and the stories that made her want to write, the plots of the If You Give books and their animal stars, the famous fans who have read them aloud, the animated series, and the lesser-known titles she wrote about monsters, ponies and puppies in training. It is pitched for parents, for teachers planning an author study, and for anyone who grew up with the mouse. Every answer comes with a short explanation, so you will leave with a few stories worth retelling at story time.
30 of 40 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Before settling on a mouse, Laura Numeroff pictured a zebra getting orange dust on its face from which snack?
Cheetos
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.
Q 02In 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
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.
Q 03Laura Numeroff loved selling cookies as a Girl Scout and still names which Girl Scout cookie as her favourite?
Thin Mints
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.
Q 04Which Harrison Ford thriller quotes the title of If You Give a Mouse a Cookie as a warning against appeasing terrorists?
Air Force One
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.
Q 05Which talk show host featured Laura Numeroff's If You Give a Pig a Pancake three times in a single year?
Oprah Winfrey
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.
Q 06Laura Numeroff credits which classic children's novel about a mouse in New York City with making her a writer?
Stuart Little
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.
Q 07Six years after If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, Laura Numeroff's first sequel handed a muffin to which animal?
A moose
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.
Q 08Which First Lady read Laura Numeroff's If You Give a Mouse a Cookie aloud at the White House Easter Egg Roll?
Michelle Obama
Michelle Obama read it on the White House lawn with her mother and her daughters, Malia and Sasha, beside her.
Q 09Which long-running newspaper comic built two strips around Laura Numeroff's If You Give a Mouse a Cookie?
Peanuts
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.
Q 10Laura Numeroff, the youngest of three girls, was born and raised in which borough of New York City?
Brooklyn
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.
Q 11Laura Numeroff dreamed up If You Give a Mouse a Cookie to fight boredom during what?
A long car trip
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.
Q 12Which illustrator, who hides names of family and pets in her art, drew all of Laura Numeroff's If You Give books?
Felicia Bond
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.
Q 13In Laura Numeroff's If You Give a Pig a Pancake, which sticky extra sends the pig off to take a bath?
Maple syrup
Q 21Which three-word motto does Laura Numeroff take from the nine rejections her most famous manuscript collected?
Never give up
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.
Q 22Laura Numeroff's Monster Munchies joined the Beginner Books line that began with which Dr. Seuss classic?
The Cat in the Hat
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.
Q 23Laura Numeroff's own parody of If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, written for adults, hands the cookie to whom?
A man
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.
Q 14Laura Numeroff's If You Take a Mouse to the Movies, nine weeks a number one bestseller, unfolds around which holiday?
Christmas
Christmas runs through the whole outing, which leads on to snowmen, snow forts, buying a tree and making ornaments.
Q 15In which Asian capital was an entire city bus painted with pictures of Laura Numeroff's cookie-loving Mouse?
Tokyo
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.
Q 16Laura Numeroff was an executive producer when which company made If You Give a Mouse a Cookie an animated series?
Amazon
Amazon picked the show up from a pilot, and it ran for two seasons with holiday specials for Halloween and Valentine's Day.
Q 17Laura Numeroff's picture book Raising a Hero follows Max, a puppy with a lot to learn before becoming what?
A service dog
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.
Q 18Laura Numeroff grew up in New York but has long made her home in which West Coast city?
Los Angeles
Los Angeles is her home base, and from there she has visited more than 100 elementary schools as an author.
Q 19Laura Numeroff's life story, written at a second-grade reading level, is titled If You Give an Author a what?
Pencil
Pencil completes the title of her 2003 autobiography, which she pitched at second graders so that children could read it for themselves.
Q 20Which storybook girl, at home in New York's Plaza Hotel, starred in one of Laura Numeroff's favourite childhood books?
Eloise
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.
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.
Q 24Laura Numeroff and co-creator Sean Hanrahan raised the money to publish Raising a Hero on which crowdfunding site?
Kickstarter
Kickstarter funded what became her first independently published children's book. She met Hanrahan when he came to fix her dated website.
Q 25In 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
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.
Q 26Laura Numeroff first went to art college to study which subject, hoping to copy an older sibling's career?
Fashion design
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.
Q 27Which singer-songwriter, known for the 1994 hit Stay, wrote songs for the animated If You Give a Mouse a Cookie series?
Lisa Loeb
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.
Q 28Profits from Laura Numeroff's 10-Step Guide to Living with Your Monster helped fund which actor's research foundation?
Michael J. Fox
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.
Q 29Laura Numeroff's first book, Amy for Short, began as college homework and stars a third grader known for being what?
The tallest in class
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.
Q 30In Laura Numeroff's If You Give a Dog a Donut, which drink does the dog want, sending him out to pick fruit?
Apple juice
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.