Just a Little Critter Collection

Little Critter

by Mercer Mayer

Celebrate 40 years of Little Critter® with seven classic stories in one book, Just for You (the very first Little Critter® story!); Just Go to Bed ; All by Myself ; I Was So Mad ; When I Get Bigger ; Just a Mess ; and I Just Forgot . This 176-page hardcover collection is a wonderful way to introduce Mercer Mayer’s beloved tales of growing up to a whole new generation.

Genres: Picture Books, Childrens, Kids, Collections, Fiction, Animals

176 pages, Hardcover

First published July 12, 2005

About the author

Mercer Mayer is an American children's author and illustrator. He has published over 300 books, using a wide range of illustrative styles. Mayer is best known for his Little Critter and Little Monster series of books.

Reviews

[Calista · Rating 5 out of 5]

This great introduction into Little Critter Collection contains:

Just for You
When I get Bigger
I Was so Mad
All by Myself
Just Go to Bed
Just a Mess
I Just Forgot

This is a great way to get some of these fabulous stories.

[Kristan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Quinn's second book! I read some of these books as a kid and it was a joy to read them to my daughter now. The stories were dated in some aspects, understandably (dialing a phone, for instance) but the words and illustrations still ultimately hold up.

[Holli · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this little guy. He's cute and fun to read.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

A collection of classic "Just Little Critter" stories. Ones that span all time by having the child's perspective in the words, the parent perspective in the pictures, and ending in bedtime.

[Kim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Had this read to me by my six year old. Gotta love some Little Critter!!

[Kristen Cunningham · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another year of giving myself credit for reading children’s’ lit! I won’t log every new book Quinn and I read or our daily rereads (because that would be absurd). I just want to document books that feel important to my thinking about early literacy, classics vs contemporary styles & trends, and our particular tastes.

This collection is great. Quinn wanted to read the whole thing in one sitting. These stories totally endear us to Little Critter’s mischief and mistakes. He means well but makes a mess and the pictures tell their own story. I really love how dusty& gross the critter fam is! There are spiders and bugs all over the house but mom is always in a full length gown. lol like what species are they?!

I especially love “I was so mad”, “I Just Forgot,” and “Just for you”. I think Quinn will like to talk about these when he’s older.

[Brian · Rating 5 out of 5]

Little Critter is probably why I have insane emotional intelligence and am empathetic to a fault. If your kids aren’t reading this, they should never be allowed to vote in a democratic election.

[Erin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read these as a kid and my son loves them

[Karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

My little boy got this book for his second Christmas: He was exactly one year, six weeks and one day old at the time. He didn't really get the humor then. He is now four years and four months old. He gets the humor now. In fact, some of these pages send him into fits of giggles that last so long that I have to stop reading. I'm OK with that.

For the past month, my son has been at an "I'll do it" stage. That stage is curiously close to Little Critter's "Just for You" stage and the "All By Myself" stage. My son recognizes this, and the look on the mommy's face, and that's why these stories send him into paroxysms of laughter. This collection has seven Little Critter stories, all of which capture a preschooler perfectly, and all of which I remember reading.

Little Critter is iconic. When I saw him again as a children's librarian many years after having read his stories as a child, it was like catching up with an old friend. I'm just not saying how old that friend is. It doesn't matter -- now he is a new friend for my little boy.

[Angie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Synopsis: "Celebrate 30 years of Little Critter® with seven classic stories in one book! This 176-page hardcover collection is a wonderful way to introduce Mercer Mayer’s beloved tales of growing up to a whole new generation."

My Review: All the best Critter books combined into one. Both my hubby and I loved Critter when we were kids and are now enjoying sharing them with our Munchkin. There are so many lessons wrapped into the Critter stories and young children relate well to them. The images are very cute and it is always fun trying to find the mouse, spider and grasshopper on each page. Even my Munchkin who is only 6 months old gets excited when I pull this book out. The only issue I had with it is the fact that the book is so big, it is hard to juggle it and a squirming child while turning pages.

[Tamra · Rating 4 out of 5]

We owned a bunch of these when I was little, and I realized that I didn't own any for my own kids! So last year I asked my parents for a good collection or two of Little Critter books.

This one contains:
Just for You
When I Get Bigger
I Was So Mad
All By Myself
Just Go to Bed
Just a Mess
I Just Forgot

They're delightful and my boys love them. My 6-year-old will sit down and read them all over and over. I think it's great that he can read them by himself, and he thinks it's great because they're funny and cute and have little nuggets to find in the pictures.

Overall, great books for kids. You'll love them as an adult, too!

[April · Rating 4 out of 5]

I added this because it felt like cheating to add each Little Critter book separately. I did read them all though. Even won a "My Favorite Book" writing contest in 2nd Grade for my paragraph on the Little Critter Books. I said I like them because he always tried to do the right thing, but he always got it wrong.

[Felicia Latoya Brown · Rating 4 out of 5]

My sisters and I had a bunch of the individual books when we were kids. Now my nephews have this collection. The other night I sat and read two of the stories to the boys before they went to bed, then I sat and read the rest of the collection. Quick read, but a wonderful flashback into my childhood. :)

[Whitney · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is a wonderful collection of Mercer Mayer stories. It includes seven excellent books. They are easy reads and great for a primary classroom. I would also use this book/collection as a teaching aid for a study of authors. These books are easy-to-read, but definitely worth having in the classroom.

[SarahLynn Camper · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you love the little critter books this is a great compilation of stories. This would be a prefect collection to take if you needed to have one book to get you through a long wait with kiddos. Critter stories are great for reminding us mom's that our little critters are trying their best

[Mrs R Hampton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love these stories. I read these to my grandson all the time. Loved finding the spider. He’s 9 now so we’ve passed them on to the rest of the grandchildren. Funny,topical,quick bed time read with plenty of topics to discuss as you read through.

[Dan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Definitely a favorite of the kids'. I remember reading these in my youth and now I can see my son in many of the stories, making them all the more fun.

[Beth · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think we own all of these books. All of our kids love them.

[Lindsay Lock · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of my kids' favorite collections. Easy to read, and great little lessons in each story. :-)

[Jennifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an awesome collection of some of Mercer Mayer's best work. A great gift for kids!

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just as good as when I was a kid, loved reading it to my daughter, she liked to pat the critter. Great illustrations!

[funny dot J · Rating 5 out of 5]

I like this book because the pictures are beautiful and I like the story.

[Brittany]

Alistair loves reading these Little Critter stories. Lots and lots of bedtimes reading from this.

[Angela · Rating 5 out of 5]

So glad Brian and I are able to read these stories that we loved as kids to Laura! Bonus points: she loves them too

[Alexis Vernon · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was enjoyable for many different reasons. The first one being it has seven different stories all in one so it made it fun to read. The one I really liked personally was "All by Myself". It was a cute story where the main character shows off all of the things he can do by himself. This book stood out to me in a different way then normally. To me, Just a Little Critter Collection can be used in such a good way in the classroom. If you are teaching younger kids you can use this book in many different ways. Since it has 7 different stories there are multiple routes you can take when incorporating them into the classroom. Especially "All by Myself", you can turn that into a fun activity and see if the students can complete the task the critter is doing, all by themselves. Overall, I really enjoyed reading this book.

[Alia Near · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just a little critter collection is a classic children's book series that has stood the test of time, offering young readers a fun and engaging story that explores the everyday adventures and mishaps of a lovable, relatable character.

[Michelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

"I wanted to take a nap just for you, but the bed was too bouncy."

[Natasha · Rating 4 out of 5]

My kids love Little Critter. It is a fond memory from my childhood, borrowing Mercer Mayer books from our library every time we went. The illustrations are so humorous!

[garfunkelgrass · Rating 5 out of 5]

My son loves all the stories in the little critter collection; it's such a cute series. My favorite one is "All By Myself".

[Ranette · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved all of these books with the cute drawings of little critter.