by Kathryn Otoshi (2010)
This book integrates self esteem issues, teamwork and counting! And Otoshi makes it a seamless fit. Zero discovers that despite her empty inside she has her own value, and has even more value when she combines with other numbers. The minimalist ink brush strokes combined with her use of color, metallic paint, and unusual text arrangements add even more to the story. The text arrangements and font changes also make it seem like the book would be very effective for read-aloud -- her last book, One, was an E.B. White Read Aloud Honor Book -- and it seems as though Zero could receive similar accolades. The combination of prose, dialogue, and poetry also makes the book an interesting read for young children.
I believe this should be read aloud to any young classes. The message is an excellent one: differences give us value, as does working together. There is also the opportunity to work on counting and number sense through this text. For numbers one through nine each numerical representation is shown in the same color as the English word in the story -- so even very young children will be able to find the text representations of certain numbers. Beyond counting to nine Zero also shows how to count by 10 on a two-page spread. And then how to count by base-ten values. The final pages have two to four digit combinations that could be explored by students trying to remember the names for large numbers. This book could easily be used to work on a number of early math concepts -- and of course there is the added bonus of a moral hidden in those numbers, especially in the middle of zero.
This book integrates self esteem issues, teamwork and counting! And Otoshi makes it a seamless fit. Zero discovers that despite her empty inside she has her own value, and has even more value when she combines with other numbers. The minimalist ink brush strokes combined with her use of color, metallic paint, and unusual text arrangements add even more to the story. The text arrangements and font changes also make it seem like the book would be very effective for read-aloud -- her last book, One, was an E.B. White Read Aloud Honor Book -- and it seems as though Zero could receive similar accolades. The combination of prose, dialogue, and poetry also makes the book an interesting read for young children.
I believe this should be read aloud to any young classes. The message is an excellent one: differences give us value, as does working together. There is also the opportunity to work on counting and number sense through this text. For numbers one through nine each numerical representation is shown in the same color as the English word in the story -- so even very young children will be able to find the text representations of certain numbers. Beyond counting to nine Zero also shows how to count by 10 on a two-page spread. And then how to count by base-ten values. The final pages have two to four digit combinations that could be explored by students trying to remember the names for large numbers. This book could easily be used to work on a number of early math concepts -- and of course there is the added bonus of a moral hidden in those numbers, especially in the middle of zero.
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