Zero the Hero, Joan Holub and Tom Litchtenheld

Zero the Hero is a picture book that integrates math with literacy.  It is about the number zero whose dream is to be a hero; he even wears a mask and a cape.  However, Zero has no confidence because he gets left out because he is not a counting number and he has to stand in the shadows of other numbers.  He is invisible with addition and subtraction and no one wants to be divided by him.  He discovers something with multiplication, when a number is multiplied by Zero it equals zero.  Then every other number ran from him and he realized a superhero would not multiply his friends to nothing so he rolled away.  Nobody knew Zero was gone until they needed him to solve a problem and play a game.  When they are all captured by Roman numeral soldiers Zero saves them with the power of nothing.

There are a lot of lessons you could teach using the book Zero the Hero.  When focusing on literacy I would teach about direction of text and reading from left to right.  This is because this book is a little different because it has quote bubbles throughout the book like a comic.  So I would probably read this to my students and point along as we read and show them how to where to read first because I believe it would be a little confusing for students.   Since this is a book about numbers and it talks about place value.  I would read this book with students when we are learning about place value as a way to integrate literacy with math.  So far, this is one of the best books I have found to use for a math lesson, it really teaches students a lot about place value and how zero really can be a hero.