THE LION'S SHARE: A TALE OF HALVING CAKE AND EATING IT TOO
Author: Matthew McElligott
Illustrator: Matthew McElligott
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Number of pages: 32
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing's Walker and Company (USA) First published in: 2009 Format: Picturebook Is the mathematical focus explicit in the story? Yes Is this story part of a mathematics story series? No Preview and/or purchase this book on the Amazon websites: UK, USA, AUS, CAN Synopsis by the author/publisher
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, each one taking half of the remaining cake as it is passed around. By the time it reaches Ant, barely a crumb is left for her to share with the King! |
“"What a pig," thought the hippo. "But if he's taking half, I'm taking half of what's left." She made a slice down the middle ... and handed the remaining one quarter of the cake to the gorilla.”
Official review by MathsThroughStories.org
In ‘The Lion’s Share’ (2009), Matthew McElligott cleverly finds a way to meaningfully embed the concepts of halving, doubling and fractions in the same story. The story follows a humble ant who gets invited to King Lion’s dinner party. Later at the dinner, a cake is being passed around. The greedy elephant starts by taking half of the cake, and each of the remaining animal guests then takes half of the remaining cake. By the time it gets to the ant, only a very tiny slice of cake remains. When she attempts to halve it to share with the King, it crumbles. Feeling mortified, the ant promises to bake a cake for the King. Not to be outdone, each of the other animals then takes turn to try to impress the King by promising to bake twice as much cake as the previous animal’s promise. Soon enough, the number of cakes to be baked is growing rapidly. How many cakes will the last animal have to bake?! The storyline is endearing, with adorable characters. Beyond mathematics, the story also touches on the concept of sharing and being considerate to others. Matthew’s illustration of ‘The Lion’s Share’ is superb. We particularly love the cool sunglasses-wearing gorilla. The mathematical visualisation throughout the story is clear and accurate. We find the book’s last two pages showing the cake in different stages of being cut (starting from a whole to a half all the way to 1/128), as accompanied by relevant fractions, particularly useful. Gender representation in the cast is fair. All in all, we highly recommend ‘The Lion’s Share’. Recommended for children aged 9+ years old.
Recommended age range:
9+ years old
Relevant topics:
Division; Fraction; Multiplication
Possible teaching activities:
At MathsThroughStories.org, we believe that stories can be meaningfully incorporated in mathematics teaching in different ways. Thus, we are inviting you to share your experience of how you have used this story in your mathematics lesson with other members of the community. By sharing your experience with us, you will be added to our team of On-line Contributors here, where you can also find our submission guideline.
In ‘The Lion’s Share’ (2009), Matthew McElligott cleverly finds a way to meaningfully embed the concepts of halving, doubling and fractions in the same story. The story follows a humble ant who gets invited to King Lion’s dinner party. Later at the dinner, a cake is being passed around. The greedy elephant starts by taking half of the cake, and each of the remaining animal guests then takes half of the remaining cake. By the time it gets to the ant, only a very tiny slice of cake remains. When she attempts to halve it to share with the King, it crumbles. Feeling mortified, the ant promises to bake a cake for the King. Not to be outdone, each of the other animals then takes turn to try to impress the King by promising to bake twice as much cake as the previous animal’s promise. Soon enough, the number of cakes to be baked is growing rapidly. How many cakes will the last animal have to bake?! The storyline is endearing, with adorable characters. Beyond mathematics, the story also touches on the concept of sharing and being considerate to others. Matthew’s illustration of ‘The Lion’s Share’ is superb. We particularly love the cool sunglasses-wearing gorilla. The mathematical visualisation throughout the story is clear and accurate. We find the book’s last two pages showing the cake in different stages of being cut (starting from a whole to a half all the way to 1/128), as accompanied by relevant fractions, particularly useful. Gender representation in the cast is fair. All in all, we highly recommend ‘The Lion’s Share’. Recommended for children aged 9+ years old.
Recommended age range:
9+ years old
Relevant topics:
Division; Fraction; Multiplication
Possible teaching activities:
At MathsThroughStories.org, we believe that stories can be meaningfully incorporated in mathematics teaching in different ways. Thus, we are inviting you to share your experience of how you have used this story in your mathematics lesson with other members of the community. By sharing your experience with us, you will be added to our team of On-line Contributors here, where you can also find our submission guideline.
