BETSY FRANCO has written over eighty books for children and young adults, including picture books, poetry collections, and novels. Among her acclaimed math-themed titles areiMathematickles!/iandiBees, Snails, & Peacock Tails./iBetsy’s feline poetry collection,iA Curious Collection of Cats,/iwas her first book with Tricycle Press. She lives in Northern California with her husband, Doug, and gets tremendous inspiration from her three creative sons.brbrSHINO ARIHARA is a graduate from the Art Center College of Design. Her work has appeared iniLA Weekly, Seventeen, The Wall Street Journal,/iandiThe Boston Globe./iHer first picture book,iCeci Ann’s Day of Why,/iwas published in 2006.Zero is…brthe shape of an egg.brZero is a number.brbrZero is . . .brthe balls in the bin at recess time.br0 ballsbrbrZero is . . .brthe leaves on the bare,brbrown arms of the oak tree.br0 leavesIt’s easy to count three of something– just add them up. But how do you count zero, a number that is best defined by what it’s not?brbrCan you see it?brCan you hear it?brCan youifeel/iit?brbrThis important math concept is beautifully explored in a way that will inspire children to find zero everywhere–from the branches of a tree by day to the vast, starry sky by night.iPicture books about numbers typically go from one up to 10. The idea of zero may be a bit more abstract, but this picture book communicates the concept in child-friendly terms: “Zero is . . . the balls in the bin at recess time. 0 balls,” or “. . . the sound of snowflakes landing on your mitten. 0 sounds,” or “the kites in the sky once the wind stops blowing. 0 kites.”…Nicely composed and often quiet in tone, Arihara’s gouache paintings illustrate those images with sensitivity.—/iBooklist magazinebrbriHow exactly do you define zero? Franco’s thought-provoking meditations challenge readers to move bey@