MINNIE’S DINER

Hopping onto the math-concepts bandwagon, Dodds ties the idea of “doubling” to a slender storyline. Dispatched by Papa McFay to do the chores, five farm lads are diverted by the smells wafting from a nearby diner. One by one, the brothers, and finally Papa McFay himself, sit at the counter and place their orders for soups, salads, sandwiches, fries, and, for dessert, hot cherry pies—each order being twice the size of the previous one. Manders places the overalled eaters and their increasingly frazzled server in a classic country diner and piles the plates in countable stacks upon increasingly huger platters. The result is a lively alternative to the similarly themed likes of Stuart Murphy’s Double the Ducks (2002), illustrated by Valerie Petrone, or Carol Losi’s 512 Ants on Sullivan Street (1997), illustrated by Patrick Merrell. (Picture book. 5-7)