1. Mickey has the number of books that Minnie does. If they had 1 less book between them, they would have 27 books. The question, of course, is how many books each has.

(27 + 1)/2 = ?

To find out how many books each Mickey and Minnie have, let's set up an equation based on the given information:

Let's assume Mickey has 'x' books and Minnie has 'y' books.

According to the information given, Mickey has the same number of books as Minnie, so we can write the equation as:

x = y

Now, if they had 1 less book between them, their total number of books would be 27. We can express this as:

x + y - 1 = 27

Since we know that x = y, we can substitute y for x in the second equation:

y + y - 1 = 27

Combining like terms, we have:

2y - 1 = 27

Now, let's solve for y:

2y = 27 + 1

2y = 28

Divide both sides by 2:

y = 28 / 2

y = 14

So, Minnie has 14 books. Since Mickey has the same number of books, Mickey also has 14 books.