Anno's Journey: Stunning Story Book
When I saw that this wonderful children's story book was still available, I had to review it. It's one of those books that 20 years ago left an indelible mark on me, as the story reader and my three children, who consumed its contents on a nightly basis. We sometimes talk about it to this day!
Why is it so charming?
There can't be many books for children that are totally without words and just rely on pictures to capture the attention. Well, this one does! And more so, because of the incredibly detailed drawings, a page can last quite a time while the child/children search for the elusive character in the story.
Yes, this is as simple as it gets, your child spends time with you trying to find someone or something. Their eyes are scanning the page back and forth, up and down whilst taking in the detail of all the minuscule drawings that make up each particular page.
It's wonderful stuff, and as you can gather, and is just as enjoyable for the parent. I remember spending so much time on each page and soon that became the rule once we got into the book (where there was more detail) - only a couple of pages a night!
The mysterious character was a horseman riding his horse. The author, Mitsumasa Anno from Japan has cleverly partly hidden the horseman on every page, be it in a woodland or down a narrow alley way. The rest of the page is stuffed full of lovely artwork depicting different scenes, one maybe a town square with buildings and people, whilst another features a farmland scene with a yard comprising of animals, machinery and orchards.
We used to refer to the book just as 'Anno', and looking at its tattered binding and well thumbed pages brings back a load of memories. Our family had so much fun and happiness looking at this lovely book.
In 1984, Mitsumasa Anno received the Hans Christian Andersen Medal. This award was for the illustration of children's books and was the highest accolade in its field.
As I look at various reviews, I'm not at all surprised that the book consistently gains a five-star rating, which tells it all, so if you have some little people in your family, why not think about getting Anno's Journey to read to them - I guarantee they'll love it and you might well too!