If You Take a Mouse to School

Ah, mice. Give them an inch and they'll take a mile. Laura Numeroff and illustrator Felicia Bond, creators of the bestselling picture books If You Give a Mouse a Cookie and If You Take a Mouse to the Movies, are back with If You Take a Mouse to School. As you might imagine, there are great risks in bringing your mouse to school. For starters, he'll ask you for your lunchbox. And then a sandwich. And a snack for later. Still not satisfied, he'll want to participate in everything from math to soccer. Children and adults alike will revel in the hilarious, very cute illustrations of the mouse in the classroom: hanging from the top corner of the blackboard to spell (aptly enough) "precocious" and "adrenaline," writing "'Goodnight Mouse' by Mouse," sitting inside the boy's open backpack playing with a yo-yo, etc. This book is more episodic in nature than the truly cause-and-effect formula of the previous books: "If you give a pig a pancake, she'll want some syrup to go with it." Nonetheless, kids who know and love this rollicking read-aloud series will laugh and play to see a mouse at school. (Ages 4 to 8) --Karin Snelson