If You Give a Cat a Cupcake

Giving cats cupcakes can lead from one thing to another. The outcome of the sequence of events is fairly predictable. It's a cute book that preschoolers would probably enjoy. The illustrations are not award-worthy, but they do compliment the story.

Not as good as Mouse, Pig, or Moose; one thing doesn't follow from another in this rhyming text so much as there are frantic, ADD-style leaps from thing to thing.

A circular book, built upon the "If you give a mouse a cookie" model, written by the same author. In this case, the story begins by giving a cat a cupcake, which will need sprinkles, which will remind him of sand, which will ... and so the madness begins. A chain of cause and effects leads to the oddest of places, from the beach to a museum of natural history, before the cat and his most understanding of owners find themselves back at home, and heading back to the infamous cupcakes that started it all.

While I like the original mouse story, I find this one not as appealing. Primarily because several of the cause-and-effect links are weak, or aren't even effects at all, they just are what happens next. For instance, the cat wants to go to show more the museum, but the previous event does not prompt this in any way. I feel that the charm of the first book by this author was in the tight cause-and-effect chains that were both funny and believable, based on what came before. Then the way everything naturally led up to the mouse going back for another cookie. In this case, the narrative felt forced so that it would end with the cupcakes again, and it didn't have the same zany flow.

The illustrations are still comic and cute. The cat has silly expressions, the pages are filled with bright and colorful details from one side to the next. Several of the sequences are very funny; for example, the cat going to work out and doing a little karate. It makes the girls giggle. If only I didn't feel like the authors had run out of ideas of how one thing could lead into another, and were making wild leaps to link a sequence together that would circle back to the beginning. This book is decent, and the pictures are appealing, but I would rather spend my time reading the original mouse book. (However, this book given-as-a-gift is what we own, so we will probably be reading it instead.) show less

I love this book, my sister gave this one to me a few years back. I find that it describes the struggles you have to go through sometimes just to get to the one main goal. My sister and I would refer to this book when we went to the craft store, we would have one project in mind, but then figure out it would be more interesting to add other things too, and everything would snowball, and we would lose site of the original goal much like the Cat with the Cupcake.

If you Give a Cat a Cupcake is one of many books written like this by Laura Numeroff. I really enjoyed reading this book, it is adorable and draws you in every time. One reason I find this book so engaging is its story line, you never know where the story is going or where it will end up. Simply giving the cat a cupcake lead to the gym, the beach, the park, and even the science museum. One big reason I love this book is its ability to be used as a read aloud. The way it’s written and printed leaves a teacher many opportunities to stop and get students thinking and engaged in the story. When he goes to the museum the sentence is stopped before the next page allowing you to ask “what does the cat see first at the museum?” This gives show more the teacher the ability to keep students on task and see if they are understanding what is being read. The main idea in this book is entertainment. It is cute and creative and it eventually comes back full circle, to the cupcake. It also leaves the possibility for a new story. This would be a great beginning to a writing lesson. You could have the children create a new set of scenarios the cat goes on after he is given a cupcake. What happens next? Is a valuable way to get students writing and thinking imaginatively. show less

I really like this book because it is very creative. One thing that makes this book creative are the illustrations. Each illustration is filled with so much color and emotion. For example, there is a picture where the cat is spilling sprinkles all over and the girl is standing behind him and in this picture you can see how amazed and excited the cat is over the sprinkles and how worried or surprised the girl is behind him. And the illustrations bring the story to life. The way the illustrations bring the story to life is by having an exact illustration of the picture the words depict. I like the story overall because you can’t predict what the cat is going to want to do next. For example, when the cat finds “a few other things as show more well” and his pail ends up being too heavy, it is hard to figure out how this decides what he wants to do next. Overall I like the flow of this book. Even though it is hard to guess what he wants to do next the next action he takes isn’t completely random. In the example above his pail is too heavy and he cannot lift it and that action leads to him taking action to go to the gym. It is really hard to get a big idea out of this book but if anything the big idea would be one thing always leads to another. The events in this story show that one thing always leads to another. For example, when he gets hot and puts on a bathing suit this will make him want to go to the beach. One thing always leads to another even if it’s something small. show less

This imaginative picture book follows all the unlikely adventures that could happen if you gave a cat a cupcake. The whimsical illustrations accompany the story perfectly. This is the kind of book to easily delight young children, girls or boys, and was particularly fun for me because the cat in question looked just like mine!