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

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

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

If a picture is worth a thousand words, Anno’s Counting Book is well worth the time invested. The book is simple and contains illustrations for the 13 numbers included. The book starts with the number zero and a picture of an empty field. The next page has one house, one squirrel, one snowman, and one bird amongst other representations of one. The next page, you guessed it, contains images of two (two trucks, two houses, two rabbits, two children). The book continues to multiply the show more subjects all the way through the number twelve. There are no words on these pages, only illustrations.

There is a lot more to this book than meets the eye. It was not until the number twelve that I saw the snow and realized each number was a representation of a month. As the months progress a simple empty field turns into a bustling community. Blocks on the left of the page begin to be colored in as the numbers progress. The boxes even turn into columns after the number ten; representing the base-ten place value that we use. This is much more involved than most young adolescents would pick up on, but it fits my theory that all good books have something for all ages. The author’s note in the back gives adults more to think about. Anno explains a reason for counting, a possible history of counting, and why today’s number system is superior to counting long ago.

This book is timeless.

I just read that Mitsumasa Anno lives in the suburbs of Tokyo will be 88 years-old in a few days. I can picture him and I sitting outside in a garden, sipping tea, painting, and philosophizing about numbers. show less