Stories for Growing
Cover of The Doorbell RangAges 4 to 8
FairnessGenerosity

The Doorbell Rang

Pat Hutchins

Ages 4 to 8
About this age guidance

Ages 4 to 8; RIF print record, ISBN 9780590411097

The age tag follows Reading Is Fundamental. Other sources may suggest different ages. This is audience guidance, not an independent reading level.

Recommended for sharing cookies and exploring division.

A plate of cookies is repeatedly divided as more children arrive. Each new guest reduces everyone’s portion. The children choose to answer the final ring before eating, and Grandma arrives with another supply.

Good forSharing and taking turnsFairness complaints

Recommended by What Do We Do All Day?

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What children see in the story

The children revise the portions at different arrivals so newcomers receive equal shares. They accept smaller portions and later choose to wait for whoever is at the door.

Why it’s on these shelves

Fairness
Two children divide twelve cookies between them. Each time more friends arrive they divide the cookies again so everyone gets a share, until each person would have one cookie.
Generosity
As more children arrive, the children accept smaller portions and let the newcomers in. At the last ring they wait to see who it is instead of eating first.
Sharing
Each ring of the doorbell means more friends, and the children re-divide the cookies so everyone has some. At the end Grandma arrives with more.

Why pick it up?

The group has shared fairly before Grandma brings extra cookies.

A note for parents

The children’s choice to wait differs from their mother’s suggestion to eat first.

Where this recommendation comes from

What Do We Do All Day?

Recommended for sharing cookies and exploring division.

Read What Do We Do All Day?’s recommendation
Sources and review status

We have checked source descriptions and drafted the value mapping. We have not personally reviewed the full book. The value labels, situation assignments, and parent notes remain provisional.

Publisher or literacy resource · Original recommendation

Our explanation of the value fit is separate from the original reviewer’s judgment. Their inclusion here does not imply an endorsement of Stories for Growing.

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