If You Give a Mouse a Cookie… Will He Want a Welfare Check?

如果你给老鼠一块饼干……他会想要一张福利支票吗?

Decoder Ring

历史

2024-09-11

39 分钟
PDF

单集简介 ...

Adults have a long history of trying to find morals and lessons in children’s literature. But what happens when a seemingly innocent book about a boy and a hungry mouse becomes fodder for the culture wars? Over the last decade, Laura Joffe Numeroff’s If You Give a Mouse a Cookie has been adopted by some on the right as a cautionary tale about government welfare. In this episode, we explore the origins of If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, the history of adults extracting unintended meaning from children’s books, and try to figure out how this particular kid’s book became a Republican battle cry. This episode was written by Cheyna Roth. It was edited by Katie Shepherd and Evan Chung. It was produced by Sofie Kodner. Decoder Ring is produced by Willa Paskin, Evan Chung, Katie Shepherd and Max Freedman. Derek John is Executive Producer. Merritt Jacob is Senior Technical Director. In this episode, you’ll hear from author Laura Numeroff, book critic Bruce Handy, economist Rebecca Christie and former journalist Max Ehrenfreund. If you have any cultural mysteries you want us to decode, email us at DecoderRing@slate.com If you haven’t please yet, subscribe and rate our feed in Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. And even better, tell your friends. If you’re a fan of the show, we’d love for you to sign up for Slate Plus. Slate Plus members get to listen to Decoder Ring and every other Slate podcast without any ads. You also get unlimited access to Slate’s website. Member support is crucial to our work. So please go to slate.com/decoderplus to join Slate Plus today. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

单集文稿 ...

  • Last Thanksgiving, Slate senior producer Shaina Roth and her family headed to eastern Michigan to spend the holiday with her in laws.

  • My sister in law, Jean, is maybe the best cook I've ever met in real life.

  • She makes this corn casserole thing that I was originally skeptical of, but it is incredible.

  • Jean also has three kids, so she and Shana inevitably end up talking parenting.

  • After this particularly delicious dinner, we found ourselves joking about my current driving playlist.

  • I think you know we were talking about what your husband played in the car in the morning for your daughter.

  • That's Jean.

  • And for the record, it's Stacy's mom by Fountains of Wayne.

  • Stacy's mom has got it going on.

  • That's what my four year old loves.

  • But the conversation expanded from there.

  • We started talking about messages in different medias and books.

  • The classics were always my favorite.

  • Jean's a great book recommender.

  • She has thoughts on the hundreds of books she's read to her children over the years.

  • Since my daughter was born, Jean has sent us some real winners.

  • But our conversation took a surprising turn when Jean brought up this classic.

  • If you Give a mouse a Cookie by Laura Joffe Numeroff.

  • If youf Give a Mouse a Cookie came out in 1985 and has sold more than 15 million copies since then.

  • You probably know it.