Once upon a time in the busy town of Mathville, there lived a boy named Alex.  

Alex was not an ordinary boy; he had a secret superpower.  He could solve many problems with his incredible algebraic powers.  Alex was--

Algebra Boy!

One sunny afternoon, Alex was playing in the park with his friends, Mia, Ben, and Lily. They were trying to figure out how to divide their snacks equally among themselves. Mia had brought 12 cookies, Ben had 8 apples, and Lily had 16 grapes. They wanted to share everything fairly, but they couldn't figure it out.

"Never fear guys," Alex said with confidence, 

              "Algebra Boy is HERE!!"

Alex quickly wrote down the numbers and started using his algebraic superpowers.  First, let's find the total number of snacks.

We have 12 cookies, 8 apples, and 16 grapes.

12+8+16=36

We have 36 snacks.

Now we have to divide 36 by 4, because there are 4 of us. 

36/4=9  

We each get 9 snacks!

Mia, Ben, and Lily where amazed at how quickly Alex solved the problem.  They cheered and call him a genius. Bus Alex wasn't done yet. He wanted to help his friends understand how algebra works to solve many of our problems every day.