This book has great writing and a good plot, but it unfortunately reads too mature for my elementary students. I was unable to finish it.

All the stars! I loved the characters, especially Elise, but also her teacher, Ms. Lenore Looping... and the setting too. An excellent middle-grade book about a subject that is not talked about often. I wasn't familiar with it at all; but it may be more common than we know.

This is a book about mental health and poor young Elise becomes so fearful of talking, she stops. We learn she has been through a tragic event early in life but I won't reveal much about that.

Ms. Looping has a stuffed Raven named Beady and she is a very wise and kind teacher, but we see she can be firm when she needs to be. Beady is pretty wise too for a stuffed bird (or is he). Granny P is important and I would love to visit her. It must be hard being 12, but 13 is just around the corner.

"Sometimes we feel lost, the universe sends us a little help. Something or someone to guide us on our path."
"And that can come in the most unexpected form." I could not agree more!

Many thanks for NetGalley and Sourcebooks for a digital copy to read for review. I can highly recommend it!

I could soooo relate. Some days its still easier just to be quiet. Powerful story I think 5th grade and up will find interesting. maybe it will help some child; give them a word for their condition , a place to start. It's the first book I've ever read on the subject in children's fiction. Great story!

Zero is the perfect number. Elise tallies the number of words that she speaks each day at school. Hoping that someday she could reach the perfect number, zero. Perhaps, if she is good enough, if she reaches the perfect number, she can bring her family back together. Perhaps she can make things feel right again.

Wow! I highly recommend this book both for teens and adults. This was an engaging read about a main character who struggles with selective mutism. Written from the perspective of Elise, a teenage girl with selective mutism, the author, Christina Collins, bring to life her struggles and thoughts, helping us as readers to understand the complex choices that are being made each and every moment. My heart broke for Elise as she struggled to fit in and figure out how to bring her off-kilter world into equilibrium. I am so thankful to Christina Collins, whose family member struggled with selective mutism, for bringing this story to us. I also learned a lot through reading it.

As a teacher, I think this book will make a good read in the classroom. It has the possibility to start some good conversations about understanding those who are different from us and those who might struggle with any number of social disorders. It might even help some students find a voice and express the issues that they are personally dealing with.

Sorry I didn't get to read this one before it was archived. I'm in college and have a big workload this year.

Ok, so I absolutely ADORED After Zero. This is a moving, beautiful story for middle schooler and adults alike. Elise is a likable character, and her anxiety and fear of speaking lest she hurt someone’s feeling or say the wrong thing might feel relatable. But the longer she goes without speaking, the more difficult it becomes to speak out, and at times I was rooting for her to just say something and defend herself.

There is a bit of magical realism in the book as her teacher’s stuffed raven comes to life. This is a story with a lot of twists and turns – something you might not expect from the synopsis – which keeps the plot moving quickly while you try to figure things out on your own. This is a great story to read and talk about with your kids, too, as it touches on themes of kindness and forgiveness, and opens the door to talk about anxiety.

After Zero is one of my top picks from 2018.

NetGalley provided an advanced reader copy of this book; all opinions are my own.

A unique and creative modern retelling of the 12 Swan Brothers fairytale. I learned a lot about selective mutism. Honestly, the unreliable narrator made this book feel like a physiological thriller for kids.

I’ll be thoroughly frank here, I didn’t really know much about selective mutism prior to reading this book. I knew a little, but certainly not enough. Even so, I did a bit of reading and while I do find the subject broached rather impressively by Collins throughout her book, <i>After Zero</i>, other aspects of the novel were rather disappointing for me. Detailing the experiences of a troubled young girl as she navigates public school for the first time after spending the entirety of her life taught at home, it isn’t long before young Elise finds herself fearful of all the ways in which social interaction can go wrong.

And to Elise, naturally, the only way to ensure nothing goes wrong is to say absolutely nothing at all.

A very serious anxiety disorder that can certainly have some damagaing effects on the children who suffer from it, selective mutism is something that quickly takes over Elise’s life. She works exceedingly hard to make sure that she says as little as possible, even going as far as to keep a tally of all the words that leave her mouth throughout the day. This portion of the plot was well thought out and eye opening, something I found myself appreciating as I read the book.

Unfortunately, strange occurrences with a stuffed raven protector and hallucinations made this novel a bit of a stretch for me. I struggled to buy in go certain pieces of the story, particularly those that involved her mother, grandmother, and some other family members. It just seemed like far too much drama to make sense and ultimately took away from the real issues of Elise’s anxiety disorder. I wont go so far as to say this is a bad book, but I definitely enjoyed reading it a lot less than I had initially suspected I would.

<i>I was provided a free copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. </i>

I'm a bit disappointed by the plot of this one. I fully support the central exploration. selective mutism is terribly misunderstood. IT was important to me t o see this nuanced , complex character and the ways mutism affected her life. That part worked for me. The actual plot less so. In part because of the lack of depth in the secondary characters. It tried a bit too hard to tie in the elements of the Swan Prince. It would have benefited from more subtlety.

I was provided with a complimentary copy of this book so I could give an honest review. We all have said things that keep us up at night, regretting, worrying, replaying, and wishing we could have said something else. Elise, in "After Zero" by Christina Collins, has figured the perfect way to never have to stress over her regrettable words. She starts to keep track of how many words she speak in school. A good day would be if she was able to get through the entire day without speaking only two words. Her perfect day would involve speaking zero words.

SPOILER ALERT
I had worked with children for much of my life and have dealt with children who also have selective mutism and other anxiety disorders. Connecting with a child who had selective mutism was one of the most rewarding and challenging moments of my career. Looking at him you could see he wanted to connect but was terrified to. Elise is the same. She desperately wanted to connects with those around her. Collins accurately describes Elise's internal struggle and gives Elise a voice for us to hear. I would encourage middle school aged children and older to read this to help with understanding others that are different. I look forward to reading Collins' next work.

Elise is in 8th grade and has finally talked her mother into letting her go to public school rather than being home schooled. However, socializing in school is not as easy or fun as she had anticipated. After saying the wrong things and having people upset with her, Elise has decided that she is better off not speaking. The fewer words she says, the less opportunity to say the wrong thing. That, however doesn't work well for her either and there are mysteries in her life that she has to solve.

Another good middle grade novel to recommend for patrons looking for realistic or contemporary fiction.

After Zero is an absolutely beautiful book which shed some much needed light on a very difficult anxiety condition for kids to carry. I had heard of selective mutism before reading this-having worked with kids who are selectively mute. And I can also relate to Elise thinking she can control her life if she can control the words that come out of her mouth as I have an anxiety disorder. I also loved the touch of fantasy in the story, it pulls readers along. Well worth reading-highly recommend!

This book was so unique for a middle grade read. Elise is a twelve-year-old little girl, that is struggling with entering public school after being homeschooled. She also doesn’t have the best relationship with her mom, her only family. They barely talk at all.

After saying a few things she wishes she could take back in school, she decides to not talk at all or at least as little as possible. She even keeps track of how many words she says each day. This only seems to compound her problems and when she discovers a family secret one night she has no one to turn to.

This book highlights a mental illness I knew very little about and I love that the author helps raise awareness for families through this beautiful story.

Thank you to NetGalley, Sourcebooks, Jabberwocky and the author Christina Collins for the e-book. All my opinions are my own. This book is available now and you can find it below on Amazon.

I recieved and ARC of this book from NetGalley. This was a great book. I will be buying some for my classroom library. The characters are relatable and believable. I would recommend this to students as part of their independent reading. It deals with issues on anxiety and allows kids to see themselves and their peers. It would help other to have empathy for those they see in class or allow others to feel that they are not alone.

A surprising middle grade story to add to the trend of books addressing mental health needs. I read this and for 70% of the story, I could not figure out where it was going. I'm so glad I pressed through my questions. This is the sort of book that is best evaluated from the end. The reader has to see the whole thing laid out in front of them to really appreciate and understand Elise's story. I learned a lot from this one. This will be great for upper elementary and middle school readers.

I started reading this and was hooked. Christina Collins writes a spirited, empathetic schoolgirl not long out of homeschooling into the wild world of the public school (for UK readers, take that as secondary school or academy). I immediately got inside Elise's head, along with all her worries over mispronunciations of words never before read out loud (mine were saliva and misled), and the disaster of being made to participate in ‘class discussion’. Elise makes the highly logical decision to avoid speaking whenever possible. She then gets called ‘quiet’ and the word haunts her.

Elise’s experience of homeschooling is not what my friends are doing with their kids. Mom is not interested. Mom clearly has problems of her own. The day Mom leaves her bedroom door unlocked by accident is the day when everything starts to change… Elise’s vow of silence must of necessity be broken in order to solve the mystery of her Mom’s (and her own) past.

After Zero is a brilliant book, full of characters struggling to get through life despite everything thrown at them. What they can’t catch will just have to be left to someone else. Sometimes it means things go full circle, sometimes they are gone forever.

Lively writing, visual surroundings, and something everyone can relate to—it’s a terrific book. It’s got a great cover, too.

I mostly liked this book. The main character of this book struggles with selective mutism. Selective mutism is an anxiety disorder in which a person who is normally capable of speech cannot speak in specific situations or to specific people. Selective mutism usually co-exists with shyness or social anxiety. The teachers in this book are very supportive of Elise’s disorder but the kids not so much which I think displays reality in schools today. My biggest complaint about this book is the reaction of a parent to Elise’s disorder. The mom of one of Elise’s former friends acts immature and says horrible things about her (Elise over hears these comments) which I don’t think is realistic. Also, there is a weird magical bird element that happens which I don’t think is necessary because it distracts from Elise’s overall story arc of her ability to push forward and deal with her anxiety disorder. I do recommend this book however, because one of my son’s classmates struggled with selective mutism, was bullied relentlessly, and unfortunately committed suicide. After Zero brings to light an anxiety disorder that isn’t well known and needs more awareness.

Elise carries a notebook with her everywhere she goes. Occasionally she is forced to make a tally. Five is okay, two is good, but zero is perfect. Zero means no words spoken for the day - nothing embarrassing, wrong, or upsetting. But now Elise isn't sure she can talk, even when she wants to, but how can she start what she stopped?

After Zero was an interesting look into the world of mutism from the point of view of the patient, rather than the usual point of view of the doctor. We learn how Elise goes from a typical girl to slowly growing quieter and quieter until she finally stops speaking entirely. Her triggering event appears to be upsetting her friends in the cafeteria by revealing a secret she didn't know was secret. Wrong answers in class and mispronunciations of things she'd only ever seen in print follow, sending her into a quiet spiral.

Elise also suffers from hallucinations, which send us off on a red herring. We're left wondering if what she's seeing is real, if there is a supernatural aspect to the book, or just what is going on? It ends up being sleep deprivation, to which there is a tentative link for certain types of mutism, but I am not sure that this was really needed. The story would have held its own without the hallucinations to drive it.

Overall After Zero was quite enjoyable. It was interesting all the way through, had easily relatable characters, and featured a homeschooler which is also unique. I recommend reading it.

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.