Customer Reviews

Anno's Counting Book Big Book

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Mitsumasa Anno creates graceful children's picture books that are more evocative than prose and more elegant than poetry. In this counting book, the author/illustrator allows the concepts of number, sets and arithmetic progression to unfold in pages, numbered one to twelve, that also correspond to the first through twelfth month.

Seasons evolve as a little town grows, children play, trees appear, animals pass through, and the clock marks the hours.

Like Anno's other books, this little gem can be enjoyed year after year as children (and adults) continue to find more complex concepts as their cognitive understanding matures.

THis is a must have for young children. There is no text and only one number on each page. However, this book is a delight.

On page one exactly one of everything appears, on page two you two of more things and on page ten you see ten of many things. As the numbers grow higher the little town grows and the seasons change. THis enables you to discuss counting with your child as well as tell a story about the little town. You can also talk about seasons. What a wonderful multi use book. The illustrations are gentle and are not garish.

This is truly an excellent book. Well worth the money.

I was given Anno's counting book when I was just a baby,(naturally,I don't remember) and I apparently loved it so much that I literally wore the book out. I still enjoy browsing through it as a memoir and it brings back fond memories. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who has recently had a baby or knows someone who has.

Unlike some counting books which just give a given number of objects matched with the numeral, this book presents numbers in all sorts of ways--the numerals, counting blocks, and many different sets to count on each 2 page spread. The book also teaches progressions---it goes from 1-12 and each page corresponds to a month starting with January---something I didn't even notice until a few readings with my kids, and each page also moves ahead in time, from a village just started to a village with all sorts of buildings, from a track being built to a track that looks like it's no longer being used. There is so much to see and think about, all done wordlessly so you are really able to use the number part of your brain instead of the verbal part---and that is great for some kids that might not be as verbal as others, but who has number skills!

I picked this book up at the library for my 2 year old who is quite speech delayed. I had never seen it before and as we turned the pages we were thrilled at the marvelous pictures. She practiced animal soundss and found plenty of new words to try along with the counting. Wonderful. When my 4 year old read it with me she noticed a mistake. I don't know if Anno did it on purpose but my daughter noticed it immediately. Here's a hint. On one of the pages the number of animals is incorrect. Have fun!!

The book Anno's Counting Book is a great book for helping children with counting and learning basic math concepts. It helps with addition and subtraction as well as grouping items. The book starts at zero, which is one of few books that start with zero. This helps children grab the concept the zero is still a number even when there is nothing to count. The book goes all the way through the number 12. Children are also able to count the objects in the picture. Each object in that picture contains that number that is on the page.
The style of the book is very simple for young children. Each page contains one number. On that page there is only that specific number of items that children are able to participate and count along. On the left side of each page are counting blocks. The blocks can help children with their addition and subtraction by seeing how many blocks are missing or how many they have to add to make a certain number. On the right side of the page there is the written form of the number which helps children visually see what the number looks like. The illustrations in the book are also very colorful and detailed, but yet simple enough for the children to count the objects in the picture. As you go throughout the book, the pictures also change through the different seasons of the year.
The book Anno's Counting Book is a great wordless book for children who are just learning how to count. It helps with addition, subtraction, grouping items, and writing numbers.

This book has been a favorite of all my children. The pictures are very attractive and eye-catching. The scenes progress as a family builds a house in an open area and a town gradually evolves as the seasons change. For example, for "2" the scene has two trucks, two deciduous trees, two evergreens, two children, two buildings, two . . . and the "3" finds another building, another child, another . . . (get the idea?)

My three year old loves this book. In addition to practicing our counting skills, we love to sit down with this book and make up our own story to go along with the pages. I ask him what the children are doing, what the people might be saying, and what is going on inside each building. There is lots of room for imagination. I never realized how much exploration can occur when the text is left out and you are allowed to interpret the pages for yourself. This is a treasure of a book!

This book is a great intoduction to numbers and the overall concept of counting. We've been reading it since my little girl was one, and every time there is some thing new to focus our counting on. The concept is GREAT, even if its to early to count, the beautiful illustrations hold their own.

Anno's _Counting Book_'s first page features a barren hillside, with a frozen river snaking up the hill. Nothing to count here (unless your child points out the river, or the hill!). This is page zero.

On page 1, there is exactly one of several different items-- a bridge, a sun, a building, a snowman, a skier, and more. On page two, there are two of each item presented-- two leafless trees, two trucks, two men, a steeple clock set at 2 o'clock, two rabbits. You get the idea.

There are no words on the pages-- this makes the book an ideal text for teaching the names of these items, too. My child asks "What's that?" when he doesn't know what an item is. Then he repeats the name after me.

Some features of a distant hillside are special (think individual tiny flowers, or butterflies) can not be seen by a distant viewer, but Anno has adjusted for this in his book. Items which are small in real life, such as flowers and butterflies, are presented out of scale in this book, so that the reader can appreciate them along with the other items, such as buildings and people.

The pages 1 through 12 represent the 12 months of the year in a continental climate in the Northern Hemisphere, so 1, 2 and 12 are wintry, 3, 4, and 5 represent springtime, and so forth.

Anno's book is nicely laid out and designed. The pictures are a bit old fashioned, but it is well thought out and should appeal to children for several years, as the pages with higher numbers are more cluttered and therefore more difficult. They also offer more opportunity for creating one's own story as the reader sees such actions as marriages, fencebuilding, caroling, and children playing.