The Lion's Share: A Tale of Halving Cake and Eating It, Too

by Matthew McElligott, Matthew McElligott (Illustrator)

Overview

When Ant receives a special invitation to dine with Lion, she is ready to be on her best behavior. During dessert, the other guests do not mind their manners, and by the time the dessert cake reaches Ant, barely a crumb is left for her to share with the King! Baking a cake seems like the perfect way to make it up to him . . . until the other guests turn her kind gesture into a contest. Exactly how many cakes are fit for a king?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780802723604
Publisher:	Bloomsbury USA
Publication date:	07/03/2012
Pages:	40
Product dimensions:	9.50(w) x 9.54(h) x 0.20(d)
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

Matthew McElligott is the author of several books for children, including Even Aliens Need Snacks, The Lion's Share, Absolutely Not, and Backbeard and the Birthday Suit. He teaches at Sage College and also visits elementary schools around the country. He lives in New York.

www.mattmcelligott.com

MATTHEW McELLIGOTT is the author of several books for children, including The Lion's Share, Absolutely Not, and Backbeard and the Birthday Suit. He teaches at Sage College and also visits elementary schools around the country. He lives in New York.www.mattmcelligott.com

Matthew McElligott is the author of several books for children, including Even Aliens Need Snacks, The Lion's Share, Absolutely Not, and Backbeard and the Birthday Suit. He teaches at Sage College and also visits elementary schools around the country. He lives in New York.

www.mattmcelligott.com

MATTHEW McELLIGOTT is the author of several books for children, including The Lion's Share, Absolutely Not, and Backbeard and the Birthday Suit. He teaches at Sage College and also visits elementary schools around the country. He lives in New York.www.mattmcelligott.com

Editorial Reviews

*Captivating ink and watercolor illustrations. . . reinforce the mathematical theme with humor and detail. . . The results are terrific.” —School Library Journal, starred review

“*The handsome watercolor-and-ink illustrations are as gently funny as the story.” —Kirkus Reviews, starred review

“Lively illustrations amplify the story's slapstick humor and will easily entertain story hour crowds.” —Booklist

“McElligott is a triple threat: a sturdy storyteller, a stylish draftsman and a thoughtful wit who makes math funny.” —Publishers Weekly

From the Publisher

Basic math is inescapable, even at dinner parties with the lion king. At this royal meal, the elephant takes half the cake before passing it along, the hippo takes half of that, and so on. When the cake finally reaches the ant, she struggles to cut the tiny remaining slice in two-one for her, one for the king-but it just crumbles to pieces. Mortified, she vows to bake the king a strawberry sponge cake. The other, ruder, animals, not to be outdone, each double the ant's offering . . . crescendoing to the elephant's hard-to-swallow pledge of 256 peanut-butter pound cakes. In addition to witnessing the occasional price of boorishness, young readers will easily grasp how fast things disappear when repeatedly halved, and how quickly numbers add up when doubled. A divided-up cake on the endpapers illustrates fractions from one to 1/128, and the o'er-hasty cake-doublings are displayed in countable cake form, from one to 256. The handsome watercolor-and-ink illustrations are as gently funny as the story, and the heavily partitioned design well suits the math lesson at hand. (Picture book. 6-8)

Kirkus Reviews