Laura Numeroff

Laura Numeroff was born and raised in Brooklyn, NYC. She graduated from Pratt Institute in 1975 with a BFA (with honors). She has now written forty-nine books and illustrated nine of them. Harper and Row bought “If You Give a Mouse a Cookie,” as a single title, which is now in its 80th printing and has turned into a series that includes “If You Give A Pig A Pancake,” “If You Give A Moose A Muffin,” “If You Give A Mouse A Brownie,” “If You Give A Dog A Donut,” “If You Give A Cat A Cupcake,” “If You Take A Mouse To School,” “If You Take A Mouse To The Movies” and “If You Give A Pig A Party.”

In 2015, Numeroff did a Kickstarter campaign to fund her book, “Raising A Hero,” which is about a young boy raising a puppy on his way to becoming a service dog. A portion of sales benefits Canine Companions, one of the largest organizations that trains dogs to help people with disabilities, including war veterans with PTSD.

For nearly 20 years Numeroff has sponsored a horse for children and adults with disabilities to experience the unique healing properties that can only be found in therapeutic riding.

She wrote a book called “The Hope Tree: Kids Speak Out About Breast Cancer.” She, her co-author, and the illustrator donated all the profits to the Susan B. Komen Foundation. Numeroff also granted a young girl’s wish for the MAKE-A-WISH foundation by helping her write a children’s book.

A portion of royalties from the “IF” series is donated to First Book, a non-profit that gives brand new books to children in underserved communities. Numeroff has visited schools in every state except Hawaii and Idaho. Thanks to Zoom, she has virtually visited schools in Germany, Japan, Italy, China, Japan, Colombia, and Malawi.

She recently funded the Florence and William Library at the Biwi School in Malawi and attended the opening in 2023. The library is open to the community and has over 1,000 books, ten laptops and a full time librarian available.

Her latest book is “MAX and MAMA,” which is about a little Corgi faced with a big decision on his bicycle ride with Mama on their way home from a trip to the park.