by Matthew McElligott

Ant is on her best behavior when she attends Lion’s dinner party, but she is shocked by how the others behave. Elephant talks only about himself; hippo never wipes her mouth and gorilla throws his food! Their behavior is even more outrageous when dessert arrives. Each animal takes exactly half of the lion’s cake, demonstrating very bad manners - as well as the basic concept of division! When the cake gets to ant, there are only a few crumbs left - and the lion hasn’t even had his share! Ant promises to bake a special cake for lion. Not to be outdone, the others promise cake as well, each one doubling the number until elephant must bake 256! As ant and lion enjoy a delicious strawberry sponge cake, readers may decide that halving and doubling have never been so much fun.