The Cookie Fiasco by Dan Santat and Mo Willems

Hold on! There are THREE cookies ... but FOUR of us. 

And so a discussion ensues - how can the friends resolve this problem? While the friends are talking hippo picks up a cookie. He breaks all the cookies in half. Now there are six pieces of cookies - but this doesn't solve anything. 

"This is not fair. THIS IS NOT EQUAL."

Hippo keeps nervously snapping. The pieces are getting smaller. Wait a minute 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12. Is the problem solved? Well yes but now there is a new dilemma - three glasses of milk and possibly five friends? 

This is an Elephant and Piggie book. If you have not discovered these I highly recommend you hunt them out - there are sure to be lots in your local public and school library. There are twenty-five books in the original series.

Take another look at the title of this book from the Elephant and Piggie Love Reading series.  How wonderful to hear and later use the word 'fiasco'. I am sure after reading this book in a family fiasco will be adopted into your vocabulary. Take a look at this video to see how the speech bubbles work and how Dan Santat uses facial expressions to great effect. In this review by Betsy Bird she explains in great detail why this book is so much more than a book about fractions and maths.

It’s the fact that all these elements are combined together to make what I can honestly say is one of the best books of the year. Clever,funny, beautiful to look at, and an easy book that is actually easy (not a given), don’t pooh-pooh this one for its popularity. Take a moment instead to savor what Santat’s accomplished here. Elizabeth Bird School Library Journal

Here are some of the other titles from the Elephant and Piggie Like Reading series: