Anno's Britain by Mitsumasa Anno
Anno's Britain
by Mitsumasa Anno
Anno's Journey was a favorite of mine when I was little. I loved reading it, looking for Anno on every page as he made his way from location to location. I loved looking at all the little details as well, the beautifully illustrated scenes of nature and culture and "inside jokes" with characters from literature or culture that even I recognized (if I recall correctly, for example, there was a puppet show with several Sesame Street muppet-like characters making an appearance).
I've seen other Anno books--mostly his counting-related books. And, in fact, the library picklist had me trying to find Anno's Counting House. That book wasn't on the shelves (I suspect Anno took it on a journey somewhere). But there was a copy of Anno's Britain on the shelf, a book I didn't realize existed. I immediately sat down on the middle of the children's section and read it. Admittedly, i didn't spend quite as much time with it as I'd have liked. It's a book with no words and no plot, but that doesn't mean there isn't a story. On boats and horses, Anno travels throughout Britain--Scotland, England, and Wales. And he also travels through time a bit, I believe. My first impression was that it was England back in the Middle Ages. But then little elements popped up that made me realize it was more modern.
There were so many familiar scenes that made me, a lover of the UK, rejoice. For examples, I loved the babpipers and the Oxford rowing. The tower bridge was there, Stonehenge, and a whole lot more. This book was filled with even more allusions than I remembered from the original. Scenes from Shakespeare plays, Mary Poppins, Robin Hood, the Beatles performing, and so much more! I got to the last spread of pages explaining the journey and realized I'd missed Sherlock Holmes! So I started over, skimming the pages for the familiar image of the detective. I found him at last, on the bottom of a page, inspecting something as Watson points in the opposite direction. To me, this book series was the original Where's Waldo? (or, make that, Where's Wally?) only the illustrations are gorgeous and the references more subtle.
I may just have to get a copy of this book for myself so I can spend a long time absorbing every detail.