Module 6: Zero the Hero

Book Summary:

Zero always thought he was a hero – he just needed a chance to prove it to the other numbers. Unfortunately, they thought he was a little strange and would never account for anything. Because he was not a counting number (it’s hard to count zero of anything) he was always being left out of the number games. In order to be a part of anything, he always had to be paired with another number. Sometimes he was not even recognized as a number, but was instead mistaken for a small letter “O” or even a doughnut.

He tried everything to fit it: addition (any number added to Zero was still that number), subtraction (subtracting Zero from any number was still the same number), and division (a number cannot be divided by nothing). Finally, he tried multiplication. It was a disaster! Any number multiplied by Zero became nothing!  All of the other numbers ran away screaming.  Zero felt horrible – a real hero would never make his friends feel like nothing. He decided to leave them alone.

Shortly after Zero left, the other numbers were attacked by the Romans. Can Zero be the hero he believes he is and rescue numbers one through nine?

APA Reference of Book:

Holub, J. (2012). Zero the hero. New York, NY: Henry Holt & Company.

Impressions:

This book was so much better than I anticipated. I thought it would be a cute book where Zero becomes a hero to the other numbers through an unusual set of circumstances, but I never expected the story to be about numbers themselves and how they are used together in mathematics. The use of math concepts in the story was a brilliant technique.

I also didn’t expect this book to be humorous, yet I found myself laughing out loud several times. The interactions with the Roman numerals and the play with words and numbers was quite entertaining. The little comments made by the numbers in the sidebars were an important part of the story, and it really drew me in as a reader to make a closer inspection of the writing and illustrations.

Professional Reviews:

Horn Book Magazine: "Poor Zero. He's having a hard time proving himself as a superhero, what with the fact that he is not a counting number and can only live in the shadow of other numbers. He is such a nonentity that folks mistake him for a donut, the letter O, and even a Froot Loop. The rules of addition and subtraction render him useless, and no one wants to divide, let alone multiply, with him. Multiplying means obliteration of the other number and that means that Zero is a lonely fellow indeed. But when our hero disappears, things get rough in the number world. How can they make 10? Or 1,000? When the Roman numerals capture the counting numbers, Zero comes to the rescue, terrifying the captors with his multiplicative power. Tiny visual jokes and graphic elements keep this mathematically accurate book humming with humor, nudging the funny bone of the confident and mathphobic alike. Read this aloud to whet the new reader's appetite, but there is just so much to see that only a slow reading, with a magnifying glass in hand, will do. The endpapers tell more of Zero's story (he enters a phone booth a zero and leaves it a caped superhero). Readers will make visual connections to Laurie Keller's works (Open Wide, rev. 5/00; The Scrambled States of America), and wise teachers will encourage their students to think just as imaginatively as they study other math concepts."

Kirkus Reviews: "The counting numbers get their comeuppance in the havoc that breaks out after they fail to believe in Zero's heroic powers. Brimming with self-confidence, Zero sports a red cape and black mask. But looking and feeling like a hero do not help him when it comes to fitting in with one through nine. Left out and teased, he still stays positive, even though he is virtually useless at adding and subtracting, and goodness knows, division by zero is pointless. But the heretofore-unflappable Zero meets his match in multiplication. Questioning the qualities of a hero who multiplies "his friends into nothingness," Zero rolls away. It isn't long before the other numbers value (and miss) the important place he holds...even more so when they are captured by a cadre of Roman numerals. Luckily, Zero hears their cries and flies to the rescue, which finally earns him hero status with his friends. While the story would hold all on its own, the tongue-in-cheek humor combined with Lichtenheld's wonderfully personified cast of characters (complete with sassy speech bubbles and expressive faces) makes this a book kids will reach for again. A hero and some villains and good winning over evil (oh, and all that educational stuff, too), all wrapped in humor and tied with a comic bow--what could be better?"

Smith, R. L. (2012, January/February). Zero the hero [Review of the book Zero the hero by Joan Holub]. Horn Book Magazine, 88(1), 71. Retrieved from http://www.esebco.com/books/show/51519/searches/51519

Zero the hero [Review of the book Zero the hero by Joan Holub]. (2011, December 1). Kirkus Reviews, 79(23), 2232. Retrieved from http://www.esebco.com/books/show/51519/searches/51519

Library Uses:

This would be a great book to use for a math lesson in a classroom visit, and would be a good example of how books can teach us things even when they are funny stories. It would also be a great book to read for a hero program to show that not all heroes are of the superhero variety. For displays, this could be included in a humorous fiction display, an importance of math display, or a hero display.