Name: Anno's Alphabet
ISBN: 9780064431903

Mitsumasa Anno

Anno's Alphabet

renee badenoch

Mitsumasa Anno is one of those artists that elevates the form of the picture book into Capitol A ART 

There's so many visual influences in this book. The set up of the book is a book of two page spreads, one with a woodblock letter, and the next page with an illustration of what that letter could be. A is for Anvil, etc. 

But there's so much visual cleverness in the book. Each letter is an Escher-esque impossible figure, with angles that can be drawn on a page, but not replicated in the real world. A page with ornately decorated eggs seems at first to be "E is for eggs," but upon counting the eggs, there's eight of them. Repeated motifs crop up throughout the book, the suits of cards are hidden in multiple places. And each page has a border done in the style of engraved manuscripts with hidden imagery in the border; the page for L has a ladybird, a ladybug, a leopard, and a lily. 

There's other visual pleasures in the book (Anno's name hidden in various spots, images that seem to be cut from the same wood as the letters, images who's shape vaguely mimics the letter it represents), allowing the book to be read over and over again with new delights and surprises each time.

Anno's Alphabet

Reviews