Tom Lichtenheld is on a role with the letters and numbers books this year! Zero the Hero by Joan Holub and Tom Lichtenheld (Henry Holt, 2012) is another story of writing coming to life: this time, it is the numerals that have personalities!
Zero feels left out from the counting games that numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9 like to play, and he wonders where he fits in. In both addition and subtraction, it’s like he is not there! When Zero discovers the power of multiplication, he is delighted, but the other numbers are not, because they don’t want to be deleted. Zero finds he has a purpose when bad guys (Roman Numerals) come to town! I loved the concept of Zero (and the other numbers) finding that everyone has a place, I loved the way Zero came to the rescue, and I especially love the math lesson subtly hidden in a story. My son liked it too, since he’s learned about multiplication recently. Multiplying by zero is the best!
