安野 光雅 (1926–2020)

When Freddy Fox finds a book in the woods, he takes it home to his father Mr. Fox, and asks him to read it. Here begins a delightful dual narrative, with the actual text of the "book" at the top of the page, and Mr. Fox's "reading" of it along the bottom. The book is (of course) a collection of Aesop's fables, and Anno presents forty-one of them, from well-known classics like The Grasshopper and the Ants and The Fox and the Grapes, to lesser-known works such as The Miser and The Blacksmith show more and His Dog.

What distinguishes Anno's Aesop from other collections, is the second narrative strand, in which Mr. Fox "reads" these fables to his son, cleverly creating a story to match the pictures, and obscuring the fact that he does not know what the words say. This produces some hilarious moments, particularly when Mr. Fox interprets the behavior of Aesop's many foxes in the best possible way. Readers young and old will relish this clever book, which invites them to consider the many ways in which images can be interpreted. This may be my favorite Aesop thus far! Highly, highly recommended. show less

I wish I had hours to play with this book, which invites the reader in and seduces you into playing a series of logic games involving red and white hats. I found myself talking back to the strange hatter, scratching my head and flipping back and forth for reference to the next question. Although I figured out the color to my hat at the end, I'm not sure I can explain my reasoning, which means I should probably go back and read it again. However, I AM sure that I enjoy being called Shadowchild.

A hopeless muddle. The book perpetuates the old myth that medieval people believed the earth was flat, and that Columbus sailed to show otherwise. It states that medieval people believed God moved the celestial spheres "and so put an end to questions"; this is both false and slanted. It imagines that witch hunts were characteristic of medieval society (whereas in fact they were an early modern phenomenon).

The illustrations are nice, but not really up to Anno's standards.

This is a wordless picture book with a simple concept: each two-page spread illustrates a number from 0-12 in counting order. Spread #1 features 1 tree, 1 house, 1 dog, etc. You can guess what Spread #2 shows! What’s unexpected is how charming the illustrations are as one house on a hill by a river becomes a whole village, populated with children, adults, and all sorts of plants and animals. There’s a wedding, a train is built next to the town, and seasons come and go. Mitsumasa Anno show more takes a simple concept, accessible to even very young children, and turns it into an visual feast for young and old. show less