When a witch curses her cookie tree to only give cookies to those who share, Cookie Monster must find someone to share the cookies with!

Cookie Monster and the Cookie Tree is a lovely Little Golden Book written by David Korr and illustrated by Joe Mathieu. Cookie Monster is walking through the woods one day when he encounters a cookie tree! He is overjoyed until he learns he can’t eat the cookies…unless he shares them with others. No one on Sesame Street thinks Cookie Monster would ever share his cookies! What’s a poor monster to do?

This classic picture book has a very modern tone. It feels very Mo Willems; characters speak in speech bubbles and make funny asides to the reader. David Korr’s original characters, the witch and the cookie tree, are well done. The witch isn’t scary, just funny, and her driving goal is to eat some cookies. The cookie tree is smug and silly and feels like a character Jerry Nelson would play if this book were a Sesame Street sketch. All of the Sesame Muppets are in-character here, mostly used for cameos as Cookie begs them to share with him. My favorite part of the book is the short and witty dialogue, especially Cookie Monster’s lines. Cookie’s comments as he chows down feel like something Frank Oz would ad-lib.

The story is simple and effective. In addition to a nice lesson about sharing, this book also teaches children about the five senses as Cookie Monster uses all of his senses when he first spots the cookie tree. I was surprised that no one thought Cookie Monster would share, and I wondered if this type of plot would work on Sesame Street today. (The book was published in 1977. In current episodes, Cookie Monster is quite good at sharing.) This didn’t disrupt my enjoyment of the book, however. As for other content concerns, there is a page where Cookie Monster calls the witch’s idea “dumb”. Parents could easily sub in the line for “silly” or “strange” if they so choose.

I can’t finish this review without talking about this book’s gorgeous illustrations. They exaggerate each Muppet’s expression in a humorous way. Illustrator Joe Mathieu does an excellent job capturing the subtleties of Cookie Monster. I love how he draws Cookie Monster’s face to reflect the tilt of a puppeteer’s hand. It’s clear he studied Frank Oz and the other Muppet performers to get the illustrations just right. Fur, feathers, and fluff abound in these textured colored pencil drawings, and they look fabulous.

I give this book 5/5 stars for its clever story and amazing artwork. This book is a great read-aloud and would make a nice addition to a Muppet memorabilia collection.

You can find all my reviews here. If you want to learn how to write an interactive picture book, read my post about it here.

Photo: Cookie Monster reading my copy of Cookie Monster and the Cookie Tree!