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Happy Home Fairy

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Recipe – Aunt Greta’s Brownies, Book Review and GIVEAWAY!

book-review-recipe-and-giveawayWe love love loooove the If You Give Books by Laura Numeroff!

When Harper Collins asked me to review Laura Numeroff’s latest book in the series, I immediately said yes.  I was especially excited because the title of the new book is If You Give a Mouse a Brownie.

The people in my house love brownies!

For that reason alone, I knew this book would be a winner.

And it was!

Here’s what Harper Collins has to say about Laura’s new book…

You’ve given a mouse a cookie, but what happens if you give a Mouse a brownie? Mouse is back in this delicious new story in the #1 New York Times bestselling If You Give series, which has sold over 14 million copies, from author and illustrator duo Laura Numeroff and Felicia Bond. This book is also the first one to feature Mouse in 14 years.  With its spare, rhythmic text and circular tale, If You Give a Mouse a Brownie is perfect for beginning readers and story time.

if-you-give-a-mouse-a-brownie-3if-you-give-a-mouse-a-brownie-1if-you-give-a-mouse-a-brownie-2if-you-give-a-mouse-a-brownie-7If You Give a Mouse a Brownie begins with the obvious – a mouse and a tasty looking brownie.  Then the mouse wants ice cream to go with his brownie.  Which then leads him to want a spoon which then turns into a drumstick which then turns into a rock concert… and so on!

My boys laughed out loud as the mouse rolled from one zany adventure to the next and then circled back around to end with his ice cream and brownie again.

By the time the story was over, my boys were ready for some brownies of their own.

So we decided to make some!

My Aunt Greta’s Brownies are pretty famous in our family.  My mom used to make them all the time when we were growing up – my older brother couldn’t get enough of them!if-you-give-a-mouse-a-brownie-4if-you-give-a-mouse-a-brownie-5if-you-give-a-mouse-a-brownie-6if-you-give-a-mouse-a-brownie-12if-you-give-a-mouse-a-brownie-9if-you-give-a-mouse-a-brownie-10Aunt Greta’s Brownies are very easy to make and they turn out so dense, cakey, and chocolatey!

Just the way my boys like it!

The only problem was that we didn’t have any ice cream to go with our brownies! 😉
5.0 from 11 reviews
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Aunt Greta's Brownies
Author: 
Recipe type: Dessert
Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 
Serves: 18-24
 
Ingredients
  • 2 cups sugar
  • 2 sticks butter, melted
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 4 eggs, beaten
  • 1½ cups flour
  • 4 T (heaping) cocoa powder
  • 1 package semi-sweet chocolate chips
Instructions
  1. Cream butter, sugar, and vanilla together in a large mixing bowl.
  2. Add eggs.
  3. Add rest.
  4. Pour into a greased 9×13 pan.
  5. Bake at 350 degrees for 30-40 minutes.

Friends, we loved the If You Give a Mouse a Brownie book SO MUCH that we are GIVING AWAY a brand new copy of the book to one special reader!

But wait!  There’s more!

The winner will also receive a copy of Laura’s first book in the series, If You Give a Mouse a Cookie (which kids have been loving for 30 years!), AS WELL AS a $50 gift card to put towards building your child’s library!

Because if you give a child a Laura Numeroff book – they will want more! 🙂ifyougiveprize

This giveaway has ended. 🙂

How to Enter >>

  1.  Leave a comment below telling us why you want to win!

  2.  Share this post on your favorite social media outlets!  Make sure to include this hashtag – #IfYouGiveBooks

*This giveaway is open to U.S. residents only (apologies to my sweet international readers). The giveaway will end at 12:00 am on Monday, November 7 (EST). A winner will be selected shortly after and notified by e-mail. If winner does not respond within 24 hours, a second winner will be chosen. Prizes provided by Harper Collins. Thank you for entering!

I am a HUGE fan of reading (you can see more of our favorite books HERE) and I love helping families celebrate books in their homes.  I can’t wait to see who wins!

Joyfully,

Julie 🙂

Visit the Official Site for Mouse and Cookie Books (lots of fun FREE downloads for your kiddos!)

Follow the series on Facebook

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Reader Interactions

75 Comments

  2. We have two of these books (but neither feature Mouse – we have Cat and Pig) and they are repeat favorites in our house. It would be so fun to have the whole collection. My boys would love it! And I’m going to make these brownies for tonight’s Halloween festivities! Thanks for making it easy!

    reply to this comment

  11. Ah the way to my heart children’s books and chocolate. Nothing better than a sweet bundle in the lap to read to and warm brownies in the over. Oh golly I think I am gonna have to try the recipe today. Thank you.

    reply to this comment

  15. If you give a Grammy a book, she would be soooooo happy to share it with all her Grands and like you, I have a very special Brownie Recipe that was my Grandmothers. I think this would be sooooooooo fun. Thanks Julie for all your sweet and loving ideas. I love peeking at your blog often.

    reply to this comment

  23. My children and I first “met” mouse at a theater production of “If You Give A Mouse A Cookie”. We fell in love and have collected many over the years. Now my children are past picture book stories but we have a new set of littles in our home as we foster little sweeties until their parents can get them back. What a joy to introduce these friends to them. Friends that they will have for a lifetime with the love of reading! Thank you Julie and Haper Collins!

    reply to this comment

  28. Not sure where to begin with answering this question….maybe I’ll just say that my kids ALL LOVE LAURA NUMEROFF!!!! They especially love any books she makes that have to do with goodies…..pancakes, muffins, cookies, cupcakes and NOW BROWNIES!!!!
    Sheesh….they would be ecstatic to read this (along with make a batch of brownies)!!! Thanks for this awesome giveaway!!! Hope we win!!!

    reply to this comment

  32. I would absolutely love to win this for my daycare kiddos. We love reading & coordinating foods or crafts with books!!! Please note, my FB is private since I have a home daycare, however, I will share your FB post and note on your FB page that I have done so. Thank you for the opportunity.

    reply to this comment

  33. I love reading to my son and we love baking together. This would be a wonderful way to spend together, baking, reading, then acting the story out 🙂 Thank you for the recipe and the opportunity to learn about these books. I had not heard of them before.

    reply to this comment

  39. The reason I do everything for the past 5 yrs. my granddaughter 😉 she is the joy of my life and I would love to read this to her. I will definitely be trying the brownies with her also, love to cook/bake with her.

    reply to this comment

  53. Oh my goodness…. my kids LOVE her books, too! And, we love to read every night before bed so I’d LOVE to have her newest book AND $50 toward our reading library! And thank you for the brownie recipe because we love those too in the Cochrane house! Thanks, Julie!

    reply to this comment

  61. i would love to read these to my kids.. we own If you give a mouse a cookie and If you give a moose a muffin. this would be awesome! thanks so much. i shared to twitter as @heavensent2272

    reply to this comment

  64. I have a HUGE weakness for books! So anyway to fund that is helpful. Also, my son and I have hosted summer breakfast parties over the years based on these books (If you give a pig…,If you give a moose…If you give a dog…) and THEN we wrote our own! If you give a whale a waffle. They should actually publish it. It turned out amazing and everyone loved it! Such great memories with these books. Thanks for sharing this one! I passed it up in Costco, if I don’t win, I’ll have to go back to get it. =)

    reply to this comment

  67. My four kids love this series of books and I would love to share them with my preschool class. We would to share the joy of cooking with them and this series is a great partner to do that with.

    reply to this comment

  70. Wow…thanks Laura and Julie (Happy Home Fairy) for this special opportunity. My boys love reading, and it would be awesome to add to their book collection, especially when it has to do with one of our favorite activities…baking!!! This would make magical memories for our special Mommy and Sons reading/activity time together.

    reply to this comment

  72. We are a family who LOVES to read and anything we can do to foster our little boy’s LOVE of reading is important so being able to expand his reading library would be AMAZING. Oh and we LOVE brownies too!! 🙂

    reply to this comment

  73. Thank you so much for giving me yet another reason to love your website! I run a licensed group/family daycare and I use your posts to help teach my employees how to organize our preschool and then get an idea of what to expect of our little ones. The Lord is a blessing me and many children thru you! Today we started the Bible curriculum using the children’s Bible; we use ideas from the Kindness Antenna to bless the neighbors. Since hiding Easter eggs for the boy next door, he and the daycare children go back and forth doing kind things for each
    other. I am so excited to read about Mouse and bake brownies with our children!! You are wonderful. Thank you again!!!

    reply to this comment

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