Attention mice, moose, piggies and especially families: Laura Numeroff is coming to town.

The author who taught us all the grave consequences that ensue “If You Give a Mouse a Cookie” has two new books coming out this fall, and she’s taking them on the road in a tour that stops at the downtown Borders on Monday, Sept. 14.

“Usually I have just one” book on tour, she said from a semi-quiet corner of a store somewhere in sunny California via an interview conducted on her 45-minute-old iPhone, “but this time it worked out that there are two, and they’re both about families.”

Deciding that this sounded like the sharp rap of opportunity knocking, she rebranded the usual new-book set of author visits into the “Bringing Families Together Book Tour.”

The daughter of a home economics teacher and an artist on the staff of the New York World-Telegram & Sun newspaper, she said she and her two older sisters “grew up in a great, creative family. I think these days families get separated: playing soccer, TiVO-ing, texting, mom and dad coming home late for dinner. We ate together every night and shared stories, and I feel like we’re losing a lot of that. I think the best time of day for families is at night, when parents read to the kids.”

If that sounds unreachably idyllic, don’t worry; the angel hymns and fluffy clouds don’t last long. One of the new books bravely tackles a rather ugly but universal childhood question: “Would I Trade My Parents?” (Abrams), in which a young boy reflects upon his friends’ parents and the privileges they bestow, wishing he could have chocolate milk before dinner and watch TV until 8 o’clock.

Numeroff paints each of the parents in a few deft strokes that will leave you trying to figure out how to describe your own family in eight sentences or less, and James Bernardin’s gleeful illustrations of delighted parents and kids are almost guaranteed to coax out at least one sympathetic smile. Of course in the end, our once-envious protagonist figures that the lunchbox love notes and family bike rides in his own home are second to none.

This is one of Numeroff’s more than 30 published books that doesn’t come in a series, but a 7-year-old member of the peanut gallery in my household had a suggestion to remedy that: “Ask her if she’s going to write ‘Would I Trade My Kid?’” I was urged. So I did — to which Numeroff responded with a burst of appreciative laughter. “I think you wouldn’t need a book,” she said, recovering. “It would probably just say, ‘Yes.’”

Having satisfied ourselves that we’re all with the right parents, the attention turns next to those pesky siblings in the second book to be celebrated on this tour, “What Brothers Do Best/What Sisters Do Best” (Chronicle).

This one is part of a series that has already examined the particular talents of mommies, daddies, aunts, uncles, grandmas and grandpas in a flip-book format that lets you read about one, then turn it over and read about the other. Illustrator Lynn Munsinger’s adorable creatures frolic through the entire series. Numeroff admits that not many of her books have human stars.

Interestingly, one of the things her own sister did best was set the direction of her career — mostly by accident. Despite being the kind of kid who found the public library’s six-book limit to be constraining and made sure to look up and include the name of a publisher on the tomes she wrote for fun, Numeroff decided when her sister went off to fashion school that she should go, too.

But as she puts it on her web site, “I hated everything about the fashion department and I couldn’t sew to save my life.” Oops. Since it was the only place she’d applied and the tuition was already paid, however, she stocked up on classes that caught her fancy, running the gamut from photography to radio broadcasting to…writing and illustrating books for children. One class project was so fun she decided to try to get it published, landing a contract after a mere four rejections and likely bringing a great sigh of relief to graduation day.

Nine books later came “If You Give a Mouse a Cookie,” the tale of an adorable but rather demanding little rodent that launched her to kids’ book superstardom, although not immediately. “It took years to build an audience and it was rejected nine times, so now my motto is, ‘Never give up,’” she said with another peal of laughter before her voice settled to a slightly more serious tone. “It is good motivation to keep at it. I think kids can give up too easily; they’ll write something and if you say, ‘That needs work,’ they’re done.”

What is it about writing kids’ books that she loves so dearly? She answered immediately: “I have no patience for anything longer.” But that isn’t the whole truth. Actually, “they’re my favorite audience,” she continued. “I’m very childlike and have a silly imagination, and I get to share it.” Besides, it’s nice to have a place for all of what she calls her “weird, wacky ideas.”

In addition to the usual reading, chatting and questions, Numeroff hopes to use the appearances on this tour as an opportunity to champion the family time she’s so passionate about. But because presenting two books changes the format a little and she never knows about the size of the audience, she figures she’ll end up playing it by ear a little. “I don’t know (how the audience engagement will go) because I’ve never done this specific tour before. I’m hoping it will be warm and fuzzy and everyone will go home and shut off the TV and read a book!"

Leah DuMouchel is a free-lance writer who covers books for Annarbor.com.

Laura Numeroff’s “Bringing Families Together Book Tour” will stop at the downtown Borders at 6 p.m. on Monday, Sept. 14.