When she receives her first invitation to dine with the king of the jungle, an ant is very nervous. At the feast, the lion is a gracious host, but the ant is shocked by the rudeness of other animals in attendance. The elephant takes one-half of the cake for dessert and passes it to the hippo. “‘What a pig,’ thought the hippo. ‘But if he’s taking half, I’m taking half of what’s left.’” One quarter of the cake is passed to the gorilla, and so on, until the ant is given the tiniest of pieces. It crumbles when she tries to slice it, leaving nothing for the lion. In dismay, she offers to bake the lion a cake. Not to be outdone, the beetle offers to bake two cakes, the frog offers to bake four, and so on, until the elephant finds himself promising to bake a staggering 256 cakes. This playful picture-book about halves and doubles will be twice the fun for readers inspired to do the calculations on their own. (Ages 5-9)

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?