Module 6: Zero the hero

Book cover image: 

Taken from Amazon.com (Amazon.com, Inc, n.d)

Genre:
The book Zero the hero is considered a picture book for older readers but could also be classified as a humorous fiction book for young readers and a math concepts picture book.

Book Summary:

Zero believes he is a hero but has trouble proving it to all the other numbers because he simply doesn’t add anything to the others in addition.  He is also just a shadow to the other numbers to make them bigger.  Then he finds out he is also no use in division.  Even worse, in multiplication he makes the others disappear, which is pretty troublesome when trying to fit in.  Despite all this, Zero knows he is worth something he just has to prove it.  Then his number friends are captured by the Roman soldiers and Zero has a chance to finally save the day.

APA Reference of Book:  

Holub, J., & Lichtenheld, T. (2012) Zero the hero. New York: Henry Holt and Company, LLC.

Impressions:

This book was the perfect blend of humor and math and I think it is a great picture book for older readers.  While this book good be enjoyable for younger readers, they would likely miss some of the humor due to the fact that they do not understand some of the mathematical concepts referenced in the book. The book is recommended for ages 6-10 years old which I would agree with as long as you make sure the math concepts have at least been introduced if you expect good comprehension. There is a lot of dialogue in the book, which makes it great for older readers that may not be quite ready for chapter books.  Additionally, the illustrations and narration work together to tell more of the story and add extra humor.  One example of this is when the roman numerals enter the scene.  In the bottom of the page where you would generally find the page number is a little cartoonish character that says “this is page XXVIII.” Then in the opposite corner you have the number ‘8’ looking at the roman numerals ‘VIII” saying “so, it takes FOUR of you to do my job?”.  Math humor like this is sprinkled throughout the book with each number being given its own personality.   The author and illustrator have taken math concepts that can be tricky when first introduced and made it fun! I would almost bet that there are children out there that have read this book and will never forget the role of Zero in addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. 

Professional Review:

Taken from PublishersWeekly , Reviewed on 11/21/2011, Published on 02/28/2012

This story about the concept of zero recalls both Lichtenheld's recent E-mergency and Kathryn Otoshi's Zero (2010). Like the former, it features walking, talking written characters (digits, in this case, rather than letters), accompanied by Lichtenheld's snappy, cartoon-style art. And like the latter, it features a Zero who's scorned by his fellow numbers and who worries that he "doesn't count." But Holub's (Wagons Ho!) Zero, who dresses in a superhero cape, has an inner "belief in his wonderfulness" and awaits a chance to prove it. At this point, several involved exchanges about Zero's arithmetic functions establish that Zero extinguishes anything he's multiplied by (Zero times a rock equals Zero), but the discussions weigh the story down and don't seem likely to enlighten math-o-phobes. Past the blackboard digressions, things pick up as Zero rescues the other numbers from an attack by toga-clad Roman numerals, scaring them off with his destructive multiplicative powers ("Run IV your life!" one yells). Despite the energetic artwork and some clever ideas, though, Zero's story doesn't quite add up. Ages 6-10. 

Agent: Eden Street Literary. Illustrator's agent: Amy Rennert Agency. 

APA Reference of Professional Review:

Publishers Weekly. (2012, February 28). Zero the Hero. Retrieved February 24, 2018, from Publishers Weekly: https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-8050-9384-1

Library Uses:

Zero the hero has so much potential for regular use in early elementary classrooms.  The hero of the book, Zero, helps reinforce counting skills and introduces addition, subtraction, division, and multiplication which gives educators the ability to keep it simple or expand on concepts.  As a librarian, I would create a learning kit to support classroom learning.  The kit would include felt board cutouts with all the numbers, or rather characters, from the book in addition to extra numbers.  These felts could be used to retell the story followed by a math lesson using the additional felt pieces.  I would also include various templates for teachers to use to create various crafts centered around the story.  Additionally the kit would include templates and lesson plan ideas to use the story as part of 100^th day of school celebrations.    

Readalikes:

All the following readalikes are suggested because they magically combine mathematics and reading which can be hard to do.  Often you have readers that either love math or love reading but never both.  What better way to show math loves that reading can be fun AND to show readers that math really isn’t that bad. 

The ghost of skip-count castle is a slightly lower level book that is geared for preschool thru grade 3, but is a second grade reading level so it would be good for readers on the younger end of the level for Zero the hero.  This does not tackle any multiplication or division, but does introduce the concept of counting by twos, fives, and tens

A wonderfully illustrated counting, multiplication and even a little addition book is One is a snail, ten is a crab by April Pulley Sayre.  The book falls in the same age range and uses a beach theme and craps, snails, people, dogs, insects, spiders, to count, add, and multiply up to 100.

Jon Scieszka is one of my favorite picture book authors and he has written a wonderfully funny book about waking up and discovering everything is a problem … well math problems.  The Math curse is a well-illustrated journey through the eyes of a young girl who realizes math is all around and it doesn’t have to be a curse.  

Checkout my Goodreads list of children and youth literature I read during the Spring 2018 Semester at UNT.