Zer0


Even the best pitchers in baseball occasionally drop a deuce on the scorecard instead of their usual goose eggs. 

THREE PROS
*It's about time a kiddie book gave the spotlight to what is actually the most common digit of all (think binary code)  
*Does its best to give the numbers personalities...and particularly positive ones at that (with the exception of our star)
*Super cool how the cover slaps a holographic '0' into the title word "Zer0"

THREE CONS 
*I'm sorry, but you can only get so excited about the trials and tribulations of a group of numbers hanging out together -- even the writers of Gossip Girl would have a tough time maintaining their Nielsen Rating if they were forced to replace Blake Lively with the number eight 
*While exclamation points and dots are a part of the world of numbers (factorials and decimals), I don't think they should have been included in the illustrated sections if they were not going to be given equal character weight (kind of kills the whole background equality message if numbers are portrayed as superior to symbols) 
*Why would I want to read the first four pages again after seeing them printed on the inside cover

ONE DAD'S OPINION
.
Kathryn Otoshi is an author with great promise.  You don't win awards in the double digits for being a slouch.  Consequently, I hope that at some point in the future, I will review another book of hers and begin to fix the damage I am about to inflict...  There's a reason why hardcore Trekkies are mocked by the general public.  It's not because the characters or scripts are inherently lame (swap the galactic locale for LA and it wouldn't be that different from the usual fare).  Rather, it's a result of the masses fleeing from anything steeped in science and math.  In much the same way, a children's story about numbers - and only numbers - is gonna be a difficult sell to regular parents.  That is to say, if you and your spouse are programmers or engineers, this might be worth a second look.  For everyone else, Donate it to that annoyingly smart family you got stuck in awkward conversation with at that cocktail party last month.  Oh, and one more thing:  ease my guilt and check out Otoshi's website.  If you see something you like, maybe you buy it.  Ahhhhh, I feel better already :)    

Buy / Borrow / DONATE / Destroy




5 comments:

mysteryguy said...

#1: Bloggers editing function forced me to include that dot before Kathryn's name in order to keep the style attributes. Sorry...

#2: I don't watch Star Trek or Gossip Girl on a regular basis. Sadly, I am too stupid for one of them and too male for the other....

Terri. said...

Added you to my blog list...check it out :) http://www.atthemapletable.com

Amee said...

Hi, I am stopping by from Madame Deals please come and visit my site and enter to win over $2000 in prizes including $100 in amazon giftcards.

Thank you
Amee

Erin said...

Hi!! I am a new follower from a blog hop. I hope that you can follow me too. Thanks, Erin

Terri's Little Haven said...

Well thanks for the review. I think I'll pass on this one, however I do know a couple of families I could give it to if need be :).