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Laura Joffe Numeroff
Author and illustrator Laura Joffe Numeroff was born July 14, 1953 in Brooklyn, New York and is the youngest of three daughters, surrounded by books, art, and music. As a child, she was an avid reader, and by age nine had decided she wanted to become a writer when she grew up.

She was thrilled when she was told she could take any six library books home. She would lie on her bed and just read for hours. Then as quickly as she finished the six books, she would head on back to the library to get more.

She credits her current profession to two very specific childhood favorites, claiming that they are the reason she is a writer: “Eloise” by Kay Thompson and “Stuart Little” by E. B. White. Now she loves nonfiction, biographies, and stories that deal with travel.

Besides reading, she also loves watching movies. One year, she saw a total of seventy-two movies. She enjoys exploring the state of California (where she lives) and enjoys driving through the country and watching the cows (she spent twenty-five years in New York City).

When came time for Laura to apply to college, she chose not to pursue becoming a writer. Instead she majored in fashion, following in her sister’s footsteps. Eventually though, she found that fashion wasn’t for her, so she returned to her dream of becoming a writer, and began taking classes in animation, illustration, photography, and one class called Writing and Illustrating Children’s Books” with Barbara Bottner.

One of the homework assignments for one of these classes prompted her to write “Amy for Short”. The story was published just before she graduated by Macmillan Publishing in the year 1975, and launched her writing career.

To supplement her income when she first started out, she worked such odd jobs as doing private investigation and running a merry-go-round.

“If You Give a Mouse a Cookie”, published in the year 1985, launched the hit “If You Give…” series. It had been rejected by publishers a total of nine times before Harper finally accepted it. The series has sold more than four and a half million copies, won the prestigious Quill Award in the picture book category, and has been printed in fourteen languages.

“If You Give a Mouse a Cookie” was the tenth book that she wrote. The idea came to her during a long and tedious car trip. She gets very silly when she gets bored. On the way from San Francisco to Oregon in the car, she attempted to make her friend laugh by telling a tale about a mouse nibbling on a cookie. By the time they had gotten to Oregon, she had told her friend the entire story.

Now that it has been published, she visits classrooms all around the country, reading it to kids. For fun, she warns them that she might make a mistake while she is reading and hopes they catch it. Then she says something like “If you give a mouse a cookie, he will want a banana.” The shouts of protest go up must be heard to be believed. There is also a dance she made up to the song “Doin’ the Mouse Cookie” which she shows to the children.

Laura started her career as her own illustrator and serving as the illustrator and writer of her first nine books, but after her editor chose Felicia Bond to illustrate “If You Give a Mouse a Cookie” book, she has not illustrated any book since. She has said that even though she loves to draw, she decided her real strength was in writing, not in illustration.

“If You Give a Mouse a Cookie” is the first book in the “If You Give…” series and was released in the year 1985. If a hungry little traveler arrives at your house, you may want to give him a cookie. If you give him a cookie, he is going to want a glass of milk. He will then want to look in a mirror to make sure he doesn’t have a milk mustache. Then he will need a pair of scissors to trim up.

The consequences of giving a cookie to one energetic mouse run the young host ragged.

“If You Give a Moose a Muffin” is the second book in the “If You Give…” series and was released in the year 1991. If some big hungry moose comes over to visit, you may give him a muffin to make him feel at home. If you do, he will want some jam to go with it. Once he is finished eating all of your muffins, he will want to go to the store for more muffin mix.

“If You Give a Cat a Cupcake” is the fifth book in the “If You Give…” series and was released in the year 2008. If you give a cat a cupcake, he will ask for sprinkles to go with it. When you do, he may spill a few on the floor. Cleaning up will make him hot, so you will have to give him a bathing suit.

“If You Give a Dog a Donut” is the sixth book in the “If You Give…” series and was released in the year 2008. If you give a dog a donut, he will ask for apple juice to go with it. When he gets the juice, he will drink it all. Then, before you are able to say “Woof”, Dog is off on a backyard adventure!

“Raising a Hero” is a picture book that was released in the year 2016. Max is a determined puppy that has a bunch to learn on his adventure to becoming a life-changing buddy and helper. Dogs are trained to do many things, turn on lights, opening doors, and even helping to take off somebody’s shoes.

Sam, Max’s puppy raiser, takes him everywhere: to puppy kindergarten, on the bus, and even off to restaurants. However it is tough to staying under the table when the french fries smell that good.

Learn all of the important and fun ways that Max earns his special yellow vest while he and Sam work with one another to help somebody in need of a real hero.