From Zero to Ten: The Story of Numbers

by Vivian French, Ross Collins

The whimsical toucans, chickens, owl, and penguin from Write Around the World return, bumbling and tumbling around the world and through time, discovering where numbers came from. From the first counting machine (fingers), pebble markers (or calculus in Latin), and Incan knot-tying to the
development of our modern counting system originating in India in 776 C.E. (which took suspicious Europeans 500 years to adopt!), From Zero to Ten is an entertaining and easy-to-understand introduction to the only truly universal language in the world -- numbers -- and related concepts such as
trade, money, measurement, time, and even lucky numbers.

32 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 2000

About the author

Vivian June Isoult French MBE was born in 1945 and educated at Exeter University.
Vivian French was best known in school for being extremely skinny and for talking a lot. At school she developed an attachment to words and later became an actor, then a storyteller, and finally a writer of children's books. She is the author of more than two hundred books. Ms. French lives in Edinburgh, Scotland, and has four grown daughters.