Zero! the Number That Almost Wasn't - by Sarah Albee (Hardcover)

About the Book

"The history of the number zero is long, complicated, and interesting"--

Book Synopsis

How did math work before zero existed? A STEM nonfiction book that unpacks a fascinating history of a number we can't imagine our current world without.

From place value to being created and destroyed before being created again, zero has had quite a journey. Respected children's author and consummate researcher Sarah Albee lays out the history of zero alongside the complications that initially hampered its development, including Western imperialism.

A riveting nonfiction kids book with a playful feel, Zero! unravels a complicated history in tremendous detail.

Review Quotes

♦ Albee constructs a conversational, matter-of-fact narrative about the many years humans calculated on counting boards, used their fingers, put knots in strings and beads on lines, all for the lack of a--nothing. Until the Babylonians around 300 BCE, there was no such thing as a placeholder for single digits, tens, hundreds, and beyond. It's another 500-700 years before an mathematician in ancient India uses zero not only as a placeholder, but a number. Then comes adoption--not everyone is a fan of zero, including the Christians fighting a holy war against Muslims, suspicious of zero's Indian/Arabic associations. A brilliant unfolding and pacing of the narrative bring order to the near-misses and chaos of zero's origins, shored up by the various obstacles readers can discover in the time line. That calculus and algebra were also invented along the way feels nothing short of miraculous. Hsu's global scenes are cheerful and accessible, with pages that show people counting, adding, sorting, much as children do. It all adds up to an epic story of the little nothing that could, and did, launch or change engineering, modern physics, computing, and electronics forever. VERDICT Educators can build an entire lesson around zero, especially given the thoughtful resources and chatty time line provided in the back matter.
--School Library Journal, starred review

♦ This cheerful picture book tells the story of how it took thousands of years for humans to realize that something was missing: a zero! It explains why it was so difficult to imagine something that actually meant nothing and documents how this emerging concept of nothingness fared in various civilizations around the world, taking several centuries to finally catch on. From the ancient Babylonians, the first to assign place values and realize that they needed a symbol showing nothing in this position, to Brahmagupta, a mathematician from India who wrote in Sanskrit to explain the significance of the numbers zero through nine, the plot follows the development of increasingly more complex math applications, from algebra (Persia) to calculating (Fibonacci) to calculus (Isaac Newton and Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz). The book mentions initial European resistance, including how a few Christian leaders actually banished zero, until the invention of the printing press helped spread the concept and led to innovations in physics, engineering, electronics, and computers. Appealing digital drawings and rich back matter (uses of zero in everyday language, definitions, a time line, references, a bibliography, and a key to historical clues found in the illustrations) help round out this unique and attractive STEM offering.
--Booklist, starred review

Everyone understands what it means to have nothing, but readers may be surprised to discover that zero as a mathematical concept is fairly recent. Albee charts the development of this revolutionary concept from the Babylonian introduction of placeholders to zero's influence on calculus and modern fields of knowledge from physics to computer science. An important aspect of the narrative is the fundamental contributions of nonwestern cultures such as the Mayan and Arabic cultures. Abee also shares roadblocks to the zero's acceptance, such as European Christian leaders who banished it, arguing that something that represented nothing must be "the work of the devil." Hsu's playful illustrations feature a cartoon personification of zero who not only observes its development, but sometimes takes an active role, such as standing next to the great Persian mathematician Al-Khwarizimi as he introduces the concept to fellow Persians. Back matter includes information about other words for zero, number systems, and the terminology; a brief bibliography; detailed timeline; and some fun notes on the illustrations. This is an excellent addition to books on math history and concepts.
--Children's Literature

About the Author

Sarah Albee is the New York Times bestselling author of more than 100 books for kids, including Troublemakers in Trousers and Accidental Archaeologists: True Stories of Unexpected Discoveries. Prior to being a full-time writer, Sarah worked at Children's Television Workshop (producers of Sesame Street) for nine years. She played basketball in college, and then a year of semiprofessional women's basketball in Cairo, Egypt. She lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Born in Taipei, Taiwan and raised in Jacksonville, Florida, Chris Hsu is incessantly inquisitive about and heavily influenced by history, art history, science, classical music, psychology, and sports. In addition to book illustration he is an animation background artist, having worked on animated series such as Archer and Hit-Monkey. He is based in the Southeast with his wife and two daughters. He is the illustrator of I Am Someone Else, The Boo-Boos That Changed the World, and Madame Speaker.