Zero, Zilch, Nada: Counting to None

by Wendy Ulmer, Laura Knorr (Illustrator)

Harry is excited! Today is the first day at his new job at the Four Color Balloon Factory. Harry loves balloons almost more than anything! When Mr. Huffy, his new boss, tells him to blow up 100 balloons for Mrs. Doopido's birthday party, Harry can't wait to get started. But when Harry wants to make sure he has the correct number of balloons for the birthday party, counting the balloons gets confusing. And no matter what he does, the number still comes out wrong. What is the best way to count to 100? Colorful illustrations and a clever storyline will help young readers figure out what Harry needs to do to solve his math dilemma. A former music and English teacher, Wendy Ulmer was inspired to write Zero, Zilch, Nada because of her own "math phobia" and struggles with math as a child. She also wrote A Isn't for An Isn't Alphabet. Wendy lives in Arrowsic, Maine. Laura Knorr is also the illustrator of the popular holiday title, The Legend of Papa Noël. Zero, Zilch, Nada is her second book with Wendy Ulmer and her fifth book with Sleeping Bear Press. Laura lives in Commerce, Georgia.

Genres: Counting, Picture Books

32 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2010

About the author

I am the author of five children's picture books and two books of a middle grade fantasy. In my previous lives I was a music therapist, a church musician and a high school music and English teacher. I am currently writing and am also a fabric artist. I have two daughters, three stepsons, a stepdaughter , six grandsons and three granddaughters. My husband and I live near the coast of Maine with our dog, Sophie. My books are A Campfire for Cowboy Billy, A Isn't for Fox, Zero, Zilch, Nada:Counting to None, My Twelve Maine Christmas Days,One Green Tree, Ten Chickadees . The Call and The Deagons- Sept 2018, are the first two books in The Journals of Anterg Trilogy.

Reviews

[MelMon Sanchez · Rating 4 out of 5]

Way to learn to add and subtract.

[Ms. Arca · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 rounded up. I would definitely want to read this one with kids. To see how it went / what conversations we could have. hooray for number sense play

[Gumby · Rating 3 out of 5]

A rabbit is hired at a balloon factory to inflate precisely 100 balloons. He actually succeeds on the first try, but every time he tries to double-check his numbers, someone interrupts him and he loses track.

This is where all hell breaks loose!

Rabbit cannot keep track of which balloons he's counted, so he decides to pop them as he counts them. That way there'll be no mistake.

Can you believe this guy? No object permanence.

He keeps getting interrupted, keeps starting over, and keeps popping balloons until there are none left.

His boss is LIVID.

Well, not really. But he is like, "Dude."

Somehow Rabbit keeps his job.

This book might be pretty good for learning to skip-count, but you will spend the whole time wishing you could smack Rabbit upside the head.

[Jennifer Berg · Rating 5 out of 5]

This has quickly become one of my favorite children's books to read in math class! This book uses an intriguing plot and one very cute song to review 1-1 correspondence, and counting by 1s, 2s, 5s, and 10s. In addition to reviewing these critical math skills, teachers can easily utilize a hundreds chart during this read, to demonstrate the correspondence between numbers, illustrating this concept for children in a fun and manageable way.

[Isabel Hernandez · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a GREAT book for introducing skip counting by 2's, by 5's, and by 10's. I like how the book visually represents the numbers with a grid of 100 balloons, and how it shows the students the difference in skip counting with different numbers, as well as emphasizing the importance of skip counting and how it can make things easier in real life situations.

[Stephanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Own it: Math story book about a rabbit who needs to count to 100 balloons. To be used with color patterns, counting by 2s, 5s, 10s, adding and subtracting, and multiplying at end. Very cute story too.

[Robin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another great math picture book comes across my desk this morning and I like it!