Mouse Went Out to Get a Snack

by Jim McFarland and Lyn Rossiter McFarland

A mouse counting on a snack A peckish mouse on the hunt for a light snack - something like a piece of cheese - climbs up the table and finds a feast fit for a king. He prepares an enormous platter filled with everything from chicken legs to tacos to cupcakes - and of course there's cheese, too. However, the cat is onto him, and a chase ensues as the mouse desperately shoulders his smorgasbord back to his hole - but it's too small! All the food flies...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0374376727
• ISBN13: 9780374376727
• Release Date: March 2005
• Publisher: Farrar Straus Giroux
• Length: 32 Pages
• Weight: 0.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 8.3" x 10.3"
• Age Range: 3 to 6 years
• Grade Range: Preschool to Grade 1

Customer Reviews

Great book for pre-schoolers - and the rest of us!

This is a clever, fun counting book with a hungry mouse gathering delicious goodies for a snack. He ends up with way too much on his plate and forgets about the cat which results in mouse losing almost everything he is carrying back to his mouse hole. The illustrations are especially good in this book which adds to the fun.

If You Give A Mouse a Banquet

It's one thing to draw a cute little mouse with which kids can identify, but it's even better when you see things from the mouse's point of view. The McFarland spousal team presents a perfect marriage of text and illustration in a delightful cat and mouse story that doubles as a counting book. The small mouse has small goals-just a little snack ("Something like a piece of cheese") for his hungry tummy. However, as we follow the mouse up the dining room table leg, we share a delectable surprise: There's a feast on that table (perhaps for Christmas); a spread so large and colorful that it elicits a "WOW!" and a "YUM," from the mouse, who, in a recurring motif, begins to "flex those muscles," and "crack those knuckles." As he slides all the different treats off the tables, the reader can count them from one piece of cheese up through six "tasty tacos," and finally (and excitedly!) ten slices of chocolate cake. There's a wonderful picture of the bottom of a tabby cat's feet as MOUSE returns home with his plate of food ("UH OH!"). There's a collision, flying food, and an unhurt cat lying underneath the spilled platter contents. There's also a "happy mouse" who, though he doesn't get the banquet, does munches happily (in his rocking chair) on the little snack he wanted initially. This is an amazingly fun book, packing its own banquet of color, emotion, and excitement in it 30 pages. The McFarlands take a prosaic tale and turn it into a riotous adventure and counting book, featuring a very appealing mouse with loads of personality. Printed on very high quality, glossy paper (the kind you love to touch and look at), "Mouse Went Out to Get a Snack" and its hero will win your heart over--I hope this team has more Mouse books planned!

Great Mouse Adventure

In the tradition of great mouse-adventure stories where the quest is to eat LOTS of food while avoiding detection from either cats or humans, MOUSE WENT OUT TO GET A SNACK by Lyn Rossiter McFarland is a gem. I would say MOUSE WENT OUT TO GET A SNACK is a combination of your typical mouse book such as MOUSE MESS and a counting book such as Eric Carle's THE VERY HUNGRY CATERPILLAR. The essential plot is that very sensibly "Mouse went out to get a snack. Something like a piece of cheese." However, overwhelmed by the table's bounty he ends up with "1 piece of cheese, 2 plump plums, 3 baby carrots, 4 fried chicken legs, 5 ears of corn, 6 tasty tacos, 7 assorted jelly beans, 8 colorful cupcakes, 9 jolly gingerbread men, [and] 10 slices of chocolate cake." However in his greediness, he failed to take into consideration two things: the cat AND the size of his mouse hole! He ends up after all with a sensible snack of a single piece of cheese.