GEORGE WASHINGTON'S BREAKFAST

Not Lincoln's doctor's dog but an indulgent spoof of same. Doing the historical tracking is George W. Allen who knows lots about his eponym but not what he ate for breakfast — and Grandma has promised to cook but she won't look. With help from Miss Willing the librarian, George eliminates the encyclopedia and chooses four books to take home. One gives a massive menu for the usual breakfast in Virginia, another says that people at the time didn't eat breakfast (an apparent discrepancy that occasions no comment; neither, apparently, do they use the index). But there's no mention of what Washington did, so the family travels via the Smithsonian to Mount Vernon, where the cupboard is bare. Ultimately George finds the answer in an old book in his own attic: Washington ate "three small Indian hoecakes" — which is not enough for George, who begins to wonder what Washington had for lunch. . . Light fare that's likely to turn up at least once in the kitchen: the recipe is given and George's curiosity is catching.