Books Like If You Give a Mouse a Cookie

Why it worksEvery page is 'if... then he'll want...', so after two readings a child can predict the next object and shouts it out - and the loop closing back to the cookie at the end is a structural joke small children can actually detect and feel clever about.

Why it worksThe pigeon asks the reader directly and the child gets to shout NO on every page - it is the only book in most houses where saying no repeatedly is the point. The tantrum spread, where the pigeon just loses it, is the page they demand again.

Worth knowingSome children copy the wheedling for days afterwards. Worth knowing before you start.

Why it worksThe book keeps warning you about spicy salsa in a deadpan voice, so a four-year-old spends the whole read anticipating the disaster and screams when the dragons burn the house down. Reading it as a straight-faced instruction manual is what makes it work.

Worth knowingThe joke depends on delivery; read flatly it is just a list. Also a fire and a burnt-down house, which a couple of children take literally.

Why it worksThe book gives instructions - press the yellow dot, tilt the page, blow - and the next spread shows what 'happened', so paper behaves like a touchscreen with none of the screen. It is the best swap in this set for a child asking for a phone.

Why it worksThe chant is pure percussion - children bang out 'chicka chicka boom boom' long before they know what a letter is - and because every lower-case letter is named in order climbing the tree, alphabet recognition happens without a single flashcard.

Worth knowingThe letter injuries at the end ('skinned-knee D, and stubbed-toe E') go past a lot of two-year-olds; the sound carries them, not the sense.

Why it worksThe die-cut holes give a toddler something to do with a finger on every page, and the Saturday binge spread is the one they turn back to - ten foods to name and count in a single picture. Days of the week and counting arrive as a side-effect of the story rather than a lesson.

Why it worksEvery page runs the same four-beat loop - Pete steps in something, his shoes change colour, 'Did Pete cry? Goodness, no!' - so a two-year-old has the whole book memorised by the third reading and shouts the answer before you get there. The colour changes are guessable, which turns listening into a game.

Worth knowingThe text is written to be sung, not spoken. Flat-read it falls apart; play the free Litwin recording once and copy the tune.

Why it worksSwishy swashy, splash splosh, squelch squerch - every obstacle has a noise and an action, so the whole book can be done with hands and feet, and the run home is read at double speed with the child shouting the sequence backwards. It is closer to a game than a story.

Worth knowingIt winds children up rather than down. Not a last-book-before-lights-out choice.

Why it worksBeep-beep plus a different animal noise on nearly every spread, so a toddler who cannot talk in sentences can still perform half the book. The mud rescue gives it a plot, which is more than most animal-noise books manage.