Cause/Effect – “Chain of Events” Stories

Titles that could be used to demonstrate cause and
effect, similar to If You Give a Mouse a Cookie and
Because a Little Bug Went Ka-choo

Aardema, Verna: Why Mosquitoes Buzz in Peoples' Ears
Aardema, Verna: Bringing the Rain to Kapiti Plain
Barrett, Judi: Animals Should Definitely Not Wear
Clothing
Brown, Margaret Wise: Runaway Bunny
Carle, Eric: The Grouchy Ladybug
Carle, Eric: Very Hungry Caterpillar
Charlip, Remy: Fortunately
Christelow, Eileen: Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the
Bed
Cleary, Beverly: Muggie Maggie
Compton, Patricia: The Terrible EEK!
Cuyler, Margery: That’s Good! That’s Bad!
dePaola, Tomie: The Legend of the Bluebonnet
Downey, Lynn: The Flea’s Sneeze (the flea's sneeze
sets in motion a series of events
Emmett, Jonathan: Someone Bigger (about a boy and his
dad, where more and more people try to help but the
littlest one is the one that makes the difference)
Emmett, Jonathan: Through the Heart of the Jungle
Ernst, Lisa Campbell: This is the Van that Dad Cleaned
Giff, Patricia Reilly: Today was a Terrible Day
Gurney, Nancy: The King, the Mice and the Cheese (the
king has a mouse problem, then brings in 100s of cats
to chase off the mice, then brings in 100s of dogs to
chase off the cats, 100s of lions to chase off the
dogs, 100s of elephants to chase off the lions, and
finally mice to chase off the elephants, and the kings
learns to live with the mice)
Janovitz, Marilyn: Look Out Bird
Hassett, John & Ann: A Mouse in the House
Helakoski, Leslie: Big Chickens
Hogrogian, Nancy: One Fine Day
Hutchins, Pat: Rosie's Walk
Kalan, Robert: Jump Frog Jump
Keats, Ezra Jack: Snowy Day
Kellog, Stephen: Chicken Little
LaRochelle, David: The End It (does it backwards - you
see the effect before you see the cause).
Martin-Larranaga, Ana: Big Wide Mouthed Frog
Meyer, Mayer: Just for You
Noble, Trinka Hakes: The Day Jimmy’s Boa Ate the Wash
Numeroff, Laura: If You Give a Mouse a Cookie; If You
Give a Pig a Pancake; If You Give a Moose a Muffin,
etc.
Peet, Bill: Pamela Camel
Peters, Lisa Westberg: When the Fly Flew In (when the
fly comes in the window, it sets into motion a chain
of events)
Shannon, David: The Rain Came Down
Smith, Robert Kimmel: Chocolate Fever
Steig, William: Sylvester and the Magic Pebble
Stone, Rosetta: Because a Little Bug Went Ka-choo!
Taylor, Sean: When a Monster is Born
Viorst, Judith: Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible,
No Good, Very Bad Day
Wood, Audrey & Don: The Napping House (each
animal/human piles into the bed with grandma and then
subsequently, takes away each animal/human when the
flea bites the mouse…because the flea bit the mouse,
then...the following events occur)


OTHER SUGGESTIONS
The Three Pigs
The Turnip & other cumulative stories
There Was on Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly
The Elegant Rooster, a Mexican folktale
Try a search for "circle story" to find more with a
circular plot.
Play “Tooty Ta.” Google it if you don't know what this
is....it's cute!

The feltboard stories "The Little Chick with the Dirty
Beak"

This is an extensive list of predictable books,
circular, cumulative, pattern, etc.:

http://www.monroe.lib.in.us/childrens/predict.html

Here's a circle plot booklist from online:

Circle Plot Books for K–2 General Books
New Land: A First Year on the Prairie by Marilynn
Reyolds
A House is a House for Me by Mary Ann Hoberman
This is the Sunflower by Lola M. Schaefer
This is the Rain by Lola M. Schaefer
The Stranger by Chris Van Allsburg
The Napping House by Audrey Wood
Scarecrow by Cynthia Rylant
Every Autumn Comes the Bear by Jim Arnosky
Books on Months of the Year
A Red Wagon Year by Kathi Appelt
Alligators and Others All Year Long : A Book of Months
by Crescent Dragonwagon
Anno’s Counting Book by Mitsumasa Anno
Arctic Lights, Arctic Nights by Debbie S. Miller, Jon
Van Zyle
Around the Year by Tasha Tudor
Chicken Soup with Rice by Maurice Sendak
Child’s Calendar by John Updike
Dog Days: Rhymes Around the Year by Jack Prelutsky
Jump into January: A Journey Around the Year by Stella
Blackstone
The Dandelion Seed by Joseph A. Anthony
The Year At Maple Hill Farm by Alice Provensen and
Martin Provensen
Twelve Hats for Lena: A Book of Months by Karen Katz
When the Moon Is Full: A Lunar Year by Penny Pollock