Zero Zebras: A Counting Book About What’s Not There

Zero Zebras is a math book with infinite possibilities. This clever concept picture book posits, “Can you count what isn’t there? Can you count … to zero?” An unseen narrator takes readers on a rollicking sightseeing expedition, starting with, “I see one wallaby … and zero zebras.” The next double-page spread presents an underwater scene: “Two tuna splish/and splash/and splosh … with zero zebras.” Other active animals populating the pages include three flying thrushes, four hopping frogs, five snoozing foxes, six sunbathing seals, seven web-spinning spiders, eight trumpeting jazz musician elephants, nine crawling newts, ten tiptoeing tigers, eleven spitting llamas, and twelve mud-wallowing turtles. The brief rhyming verse is jaunty and invites opportunities to count the animals present (from one to twelve), as well as count the number of zebras (absolutely none).

Montreal artist Julien Chung’s brightly coloured digital illustrations have a bold, eye-catching graphic design. Eagle-eyed counters will spot the numerals 1 through 12 blending into the background scenes. For example, the numeral 3 floats like a cloud in the sky; the numeral 7 is caught in a spider’s web; and the tricky-to-find numeral 8 appears in a spotlight’s glow. There are many subtle connections between the scenes. Animals featured on one page can be found making a cameo appearance in the following spread. There are no zebras to be found in the scenes, but there are lots of stripes, from the angular blades of grass, to the black and white design swim trunks on a jumping frog.

Zero might be considered to be a “big nothing”, but it also has an unseen and unfathomable existence and is, in fact, a “big deal”. Concluding verses encourage seeing the big picture: “What’s next? What’s here?/ What do you see/perching in this tree?/Why, look at that!/ By now you’ve guessed.” There is no end to what is not there, and once readers are comfortable with this concept, their imaginations will run wild with counting all the animals that are not there, like “zero penguins,/ zero parrots,/ zero prawns./ Zero squirrels, zero sparrows” - the list can go on and on.

In Zero Zebras, abstract concepts are made accessible and easy to understand. An informative endnote provides “Some Thoughts About Zero” and delves into the idea of infinity.

This concept book about nothing is truly something.