How Many Ways Can You Cut a Pie? Squirrel Will Soon Find Out...

When I went on the lookout for books to review for Squirrel Appreciation Day, I didn’t expect a lesson on fractions to get tossed into the mix. But that’s precisely what How Many Ways Can You Cut a Pie? is. It’s very basic, but young children who read it should come away with the general gist of what fractions are.

This book, written by Jane Moncure and illustrated by Linda Hohag and Lori Jacobson, is a part of the Magic Castle Reader series, in which each book begins with an explanation that a library is like a magic castle and a book is a “word window”. Here, the window opens upon Squirrel, who’s busy preparing for the pie contest that Pig is holding. She’s already been collecting acorns, so she cheerfully makes her famous acorn pie. First one friend and then another arrives to ask her to share the delicious-smelling dessert, but she explains that it’s an entry in the pie contest. However, she will share once the contest is over.

The book introduces the concept of fractions by having the first visitor ask if she can divide the pie in half so they can each eat half and the second asking her to divide it into thirds. Eventually, one more friend arrives on the scene, and on the final page, Squirrel divides her pie into four pieces. It’s not the same pie that she started out with; there’s some complication on that point, as the piggy judge devours the entire pie, much more than she intended to eat. As a goodwill gesture, she collects a new basket full of acorns for Squirrel in hopes that she will make another pie and share this one with her friends.

If I were Squirrel, I’d be a little perturbed about having to bake another pie from scratch, especially since after eating her entire pie, Pig expects a piece of it the second time around. Nonetheless, Pig does apologize and does do the work of finding more acorns for the master baker, so the story does teach a lesson about owning up to one’s mistakes and forgiving those who make them.

After the story is over, we get a two-page spread showing seven pies, each divided into a different number of pieces, from two to eight. What’s missing from this is the inclusion of the word “fraction”. This book simply deals with the idea of dividing objects into smaller pieces.

This is a simple book with large print and one or two basic sentences on each page. The illustrations are cartoonish; other characters include a mouse and a frog, and they all wear clothes. The backdrop of the woods is nice, with a definite autumnal flavor as fallen leaves dot the ground.

As a story, there’s not much there, but for a very basic intro to fractions, How Many Ways Can You Cut a Pie? fits the bill.