Interest Level: 3-6; Reading Level: 4.5

Imagine that every time you open your mouth to speak you say the wrong thing and end up hurting someone by mistake. All you are doing is trying to fit in at school but nothing comes out right. Would you maybe stop talking as much? Keep to yourself? This is exactly what happens to Elise. After being homeschooled, she begins a new school and is trying desperately to fit in with her best friend's friends, but it seems she is always messing up. Elise decides it is best if she speaks as little as possible so she begins a journal to keep a tally of how many words she speaks in a day at school. Her goal has become zero. She was hoping that her silence would let her just blend in, but it seems to make her stand out even more. This is causing her great stress and it is affecting her sleep. Her home life is less than perfect also. She has a mother that doesn't seem to even care if she is around. One night she sees her mom sneaking out of the shed in the backyard and her whole life changes. She finds out that her mother has been keeping a very dark secret from her and it sends Elise on a harrowing adventure in which she may not even survive. Will her ex-best friend, Mel, step in and help? What about the new kid at school, Conn? Will he be able to save her? And then there is her favorite teacher, Miss Looping and her stuffed raven, Beady. What roll will they play in this disturbing time in Elise's life? Don't miss After Zero to find out what happens to Elise!!

Many of our students have a fear and anxiety of speaking up in class. While we may see this as them not having the answers, it may be something deeper than that. There are many people in this world, young and old, that suffer from Selective Mutism. Many times this is overlooked as being shy. This book can be such a help for the person who is dealing with this type of anxiety or if you know someone who is dealing with it. Read Elise's story and be the teacher who makes a difference in a child's life.

wonderful and powerful. The reader will ache wanting her to speak. 5th grade and up will fight to read this book. A must for our school library.

This is an important story that provides a mirror into the world of a girl with mental health issues. There were many times where I literally did not understand the characters thinking. I would have done things so differently. Why? Because I do not have that particular mental illness. That is the very point of reading such a book for me. I had to keep reading to gain some understanding of what it was like to be Elise.

Even though I wanted to yell at her sometimes, there were also times that I felt like I could relate to her. We all go through periods of time when the things that we say end up having negative consequences in front of our friends and people whose opinions matter to us. This seems to be more catastrophic in early high school for many of us and while the impact is often significant, for Elise it meant a decision to prevent further awkward moments by not speaking. At all.

This proves to be just part of the story and what I really enjoyed was the mystery. The part of Elise's life that she has to discover in the last half of the story. How does a fractured family begin to heal and try to be a new whole unit? That story is told with slowly revealed connections and events that will have readers needing one more chapter every few minutes.

I found After Zero to be an enjoyable read with a great take on selective mutism. I feel that the book handled mental health extremely well, and although I didn't know too much about mutism before, I feel that I know a little bit more now. Seeing everything that was going on in Elise's life was heartbreaking, but I loved the friendships she managed to forge, and loved the imagery throughout the book. I really felt as though I was going through the journey with Elise, and experiencing all the heartache with her. It was a nice quick read and tackled mental health very eloquently.

This was such a touching and interesting story. I felt drawn to the main character as someone who is also an introvert but her story was so much deeper than I could ever imagine.

As she works to speak less and less, but also figure out what is going on in her life I was drawn into the story and raced through it super quickly. I can't wait to recommend this to so many kids in my life.

Interesting middle grade story about a 12 year old girl's struggle with undiagnosed anxiety after she goes from being home schooled to middle school. There are may books that deal with anxiety, but in this case the author chose to bring attention to how this young girl tried to cope with it by avoiding talking. Any time she did speak, she kept a tally on note paper. At times, the story line seemed disconnected, because the reader is piecing Elise's story together along with her. It made sense in the end and I think the author did a good job in bringing awareness to less familiar anxiety coping mechanisms and symptoms.

Elise’s words used to flow freely, but then they just seemed to cause nothing but trouble. So now she keeps tallies and aims for a perfect day of zero words to avoid the issues spoken words can bring. Many people don’t understand, but Elise is more concerned with her goal and avoiding trouble than using words to make them understand. Those said words can keep her awake at night. But it has hurt her friendship with Mel, damaged some of her grades, and gotten her pretty ostracized at school. Pretty much the only one who talks to her at school is the new boy Conn. Though Elise is sure it is only a matter of time before he starts ignoring her too. She doesn’t have to worry much about words at home since it is just her and her mom, and they hardly talk. But it starts to bother Elise that they don’t talk. What is wrong with her and her mom? And does she even want to find out?

Wow, this is kind of a heavy read. I’ve read several stories about selective mutism, but nothing that ever explained it quite this well. It definitely helps you get in the head of someone with selective mutism and how anxiety can trigger that. (Make sure you read the author’s note on different kinds of mutism, her own struggle with selective mutism, and some suggested resources to get help with selective mutism. The author’s note is also interesting in that it points out the story is loosely inspired by the Grimms’ “The Twelve Brothers” which I didn’t realize until I read the note, but now I see the parallels.) The secrets buried at home in this are doozies, and then Elise just seems to suffer more before any hope comes. But it does come. Don’t give up. Hang in there for the hope and healing at the end because they make the read worth it. Hand this to teachers and middle graders who want to build their empathy muscles, and readers who like somewhat sad but eventually happy contemporary stories.

Notes on content: No language issues. No sexual content. There are two situations where violence is threatened, but no one is seriously hurt. Two past lethal events are mentioned without any gory details.

I received an ARC of this title from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Elise was homeschooled by her mom, an online college professor, until seventh grade. Her only friend was Mel, the girl next door. Visiting Mel's house was different than her own, her mother gave her hugs, made homecooked meals, and bought her presents for her birthday. Up until the age of seven, Elise didn't even know the word "birthday".

But now Elise is starting seventh grade in public school. She sits with Mel at lunch and but when her words start to get in her trouble with Mel's friends, Elise begins to wonder if maybe less words are better. When Elise discovers social media, she thinks maybe typing out her words will be safer. As she begins to chat with all of Mel's online friends; people begin to laugh, point and whisper, "she messaged the entire school." Now Elise understands... the fewer words the better and ZERO would be perfect.

This book is perfect for students in grades 6+ to understand how it is living with anxiety. Reading this book will allow people to have empathy for others who live in situations they don't understand. Just because a person doesn't speak, doesn't mean they don't have words.

This is a beautiful but heartbreaking look at twelve-year-old Elise who transitions from homeschooling to public school but soon finds that spoken words are not her friends. As she begins to speak less and less she finds that even more attention is drawn to her both in and out of class as she is bullied by girls who were once her friends, and her grades drop as she refuses to participate orally in class. Selective mutism is more common than you might imagine but it's ironic that it appears as if Elise WANTS to slip through the cracks even though what she really needs is someone to understand her. Her grief-stricken mother is no help and we are frustrated with her unwillingness to seek help for herself or her daughter as she is the adult! This novel hit me pretty hard as after teaching for 40 years, it is difficult to see any kind of mental illness that affects students and goes undiagnosed for any length of time; I admit I did some ugly crying over this one.
When I first started teaching class sizes were 20; when I retired they were 40+. That means you see 200 students a day and although you may attempt to talk to each one every day, that rarely happens. This is why this is an important book for students, educators, administrators, and parents to read. We must be mindful of students' needs even when there is no deliberate or verbal cry for help. Fortunately, Collins shows us the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel for Elise. And I am stepping off my soapbox now....

In this middle grade novel we are introduced to a condition that afflicts some children called selective mutism. We get firsthand experience by walking in Elise's shoes as she struggles with the challenges of moving from homeschool into a public middle school. After some misfires in making friends with peers, she decides her words are never the right ones and resolves to say as few as possible. Her utlimate goal is zero. Unfortunately her mother is suffering with baggage of her own and home is not a refuge. Elise makes a discovery and attempts to find out more answers on her own and things begin to spiral out of control just before her 13th birthday. For her that day looms in front of her like a finish line she will cross to an epiphany. Meanwhile it seems like a raven is stalking her. Could it be the stuffed raven that sits on her English teacher's desk? The magical realism adds a wonderful element to the story. I did find it very difficult to watch Elise as her life is imploding, but I was definitely rooting for her. Middle school readers will definitely get a lesson in empathy when reading this debut novel.

Thank you to Sourcebooks and NetGalley for providing a digital ARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

What a rare find! Elise begins public school for the first time in middle school after being homeschooled by her single mother. In just the first few days, though, she makes some socially awkward mistakes and decides that talking is the problem. She starts a journal to tally her words per day, with the goal of getting to zero. And the real story begins after she gets to zero, because Elise stops talking. So, what do you do when you can't defend yourself with words? Elise precariously sails the choppy waters of middle school relationships and anxiety, finding a few unexpected friends along the way and a family secret that explains her mother's oddities.

12 year old Elise hasn't been talking much lately. In fact, she has been tallying her every utterance. The goal, zero spoken words in a day. Why would she want to speak anyway? Every time she opens her mouth she spills a secret, insults a "friend's" father, or is completely unrelatable and awkward. This is not what she thought it would be like when she convinced her disinterested and secretive mother to quit homeschooling and let her go to public school. Everything goes from bad to worse when Elise discovers what her mother has been hiding for years.

After Zero is a poignant story of how anxiety can manifest itself in a child. The author deftly depicts Elise's progressive verbal paralysis, invoking the reader to beg, "Elise, defend yourself! Please."

Christina Collins includes an author's note describing her experience with selective mutism, as well as resouces.--Highly Recommended.

After Zero is a story of loneliness, friendship, and growing up. Based around a 12 year old, a fantastical event in forest builds up to 13th birthday. It has a good dose of reader anticipation. Why doesn't Else talk at school? Why is mom estranged from family? Hallucinations? This book will have you thinking.

Elise's venture into public school hasn't been entirely smooth. Always on the quiet side anyway, after a few social blunders, Elise retreats into herself and speaks less and less, keeping a tally of her word count in public. Her mom and her have a distant and strained relationship and her mom knows nothing of her silence at school. Elise feels lost and alone and is trying to make sense of her world.

<i>After Zero</i> has strong themes of patience, friendship, tolerance, and loss. It also addresses an important mental health issue of selected mutism; this is the first time I have seen this addressed in a novel.

I recommend <i>After Zero</i> for school and classroom libraries serving students in grades 4-6.

I think this is a novel a lot of patrons will be able to relate to. I know we all say things that we wish we didn't at one point or another in our life and while Elise takes it to the extreme it was an emotionally complex read.

This debut novel was elevated from the run-of-the-mill "problem" novel partly by its insight into a disorder - selective mute syndrome - that apparently the author herself suffered from as a young woman. Elise has had a strange childhood, home-schooled, raised by a remote and apparently uncaring mother, and kept pretty much isolated from other children, to the extent that at 7 years old she had no idea what a birthday party was. Her father had been killed when she was born, reportedly by a drunk driver. When Elise finally persuades her mother to send her to a real school, she makes several social gaffes, turning the popular group of girls against her, including the one who lived next door to her and had been her friend. Her response to all this is to turn to silence. If when she speaks she makes a fool of herself, she thinks, it's better not to speak.

Collins is most successful in making us understand Elise's motivation, and the pain and confusion she feels when she is socially misunderstood. We also get inside the head of a sensitive and creative child, who expresses herself through writing. This was an enjoyable read, but not outstanding. There was a bit of clunky writing and some of the situations - especially her mother's behaviour, both bad and good, were not completely believable. There was a sub-plot involving a raven that I guessed was added to give some "mythic" resonance to things, but that I didn't find convincing or necessary. I liked the boy who becomes Elise's friend, and would have liked to see some of the other characters a bit more fully developed. Things are rather too easily solved, and the conflicts rather too black and white for full believability. However, I would recommend it to the middle-grade age-group it is marketed for.

Collins, Christina. After Zero. Sourcebooks Jabberwocky, 2018.

Elise keeps tallies in her notebook - one tally mark for every one word spoken aloud. She tries her best to stay at zero every day. If she doesn't speak, then she won't make a mistake. If she doesn't speak, she won't embarrass herself or others. Ellie's silence, though, is affecting her life at school, and once her mom clues in to the fact that things are not as rosy as Ellie is making them seem, Ellie is faced with a family secret that may prove louder than her silence.

This is an #ownvoices story according to the author information in the back of the book, and I can only barely imagine the frustration of a child or teen who is dealing with selective mutism. I was glad that the author highlighted this very real struggle that some people are facing, as well as the difficulty some students have when transitioning out of a homeschool environment and into a public school. The ending isn't a Disney-esque rosy picture where everything wraps up perfectly, but it is satisfying. Well-developed characters and a measured plot make this an ideal middle grade story. Recommended.

Recommended for: middle grade, tweens
Red Flags: bullying
Overall Rating: 4/5 stars

Read-Alikes: The Red Pencil, The One and Only Ivan, The Benefits of Being an Octopus

I received a complimentary copy of this book through Netgalley for the purpose of review.

After Zero is about a girl named Elise who is living in near silence. She is the only child of an emotionally absent mother in a small town. Elise makes the transition from a lonely childhood being homeschooled to attending a public middle school. She has one friend named Mel, but by the beginning of the story, she has isolated herself from Mel and her friends. Being awkward and never knowing the right thing to say, Elise decides to say nothing, and spends most of the story mute. When a family secret reveals itself, Elise finds herself spiraling to the point of not being able to defend herself verbally when necessary, and she wonders whether she is able to speak anymore.

What I liked about this story is that it helped me to understand the stress and anxiety some students have. I have never had a student with selective mutism, but I have had painfully shy students who just wouldn’t talk, no matter what. This book will help my students have compassion for those shy students, and hopefully show them that the word “quiet” to a quiet student is not encouraging.

Elise has led a very sheltered life but is now attending the public school. She has found the transition to be very difficult, and her single mother (her father died in a car crash when she was a baby) isn't very supportive. Her one friend, Mel, still attempts to be nice to her, but after making a few unfortunate attempts at conversation after her arrival at the school, Elise has decided to try to say as few words as she can during the day, keeping a tally in her notebook. It's okay to talk to her mother, who doesn't seem to like her very much but is oddly overprotective and distanced at the same time, so her mother doesn't know the extent of her problems at school, and the teachers haven't informed her that Elise's grades are suffering because she won't participate in class. After finding out an alarming secret about her family's past, she runs away and manages to spend a few days with a large family who have recently sent two of their nine children, Fin and Conn, to Elise's school. Elise just can't face her mother until her 13th birthday, when her mother has promised to explain the secrets. Unfortunately, she is accused of stealing money from Fin and Conn's brother (who actually stole the money from her) and is kicked out of their house. Eventually, Elise returns home and is able to make some sense, with her mother's help, of the shipwreck of her life.

Strengths:There are not a lot of books about selective mutism (Giff's Jubilee and Hubbard's Watch the Sky come to mind), but this is the only #ownvoices title I've seen. The reasons Elise chooses not to talk, and the way she deals with the fall out from her choices are very believable. There is a helpful epilogue by the author that explains a bit more and gives resources.

Weaknesses: There are so many bad things that happens to Elise that her circumstances became less believable and diluted the effect of the most important issue for me.

What I really think: There are now SO MANY topics on which there is only one opinion allowed in middle grade literature, and mental health is right up there on that list. You couldn't pay me to say what I really think, other than saying that I should be allowed to have a very strong personal feeling that it is not particularly good for children to read about parents who let grief unhinge them. I know others disagree, and they are certainly allowed to.

This was an eye opening book about Elise, who is dealing with a wide array of fears and emotions that begin to overpower her. She begins to keep track of every word spoken, limiting them as much as possible, eventually dealing with selective mutism. This is an anxiety disorder that I knew very little about, and the author does a nice job of sharing Elise’s story.

Early ebook received from NetGalley.