• By: Mitsumasa Anno

• Pages: 48

• SKU: 9781893103801

• Media: Paperback

• Reading level: Kindergarten, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th

Those who travel through Italy with Anno will discover countless delights of art, architecture, and literature. Every lavish spread is a scene filled with wonder and imagination, layering centuries of history into a single, richly detailed page.

A glimpse of what’s inside: Renaissance masters Fra Angelico, Michelangelo, and Leonardo da Vinci appear throughout, their works weaving a quiet homage to the Biblical story of Christ. Michelangelo’s David and Pietà share teeming scenes with Charlie Chaplin, Sophia Loren, and James Dean. And all of it unfolds against the backdrop of some of the world’s most magnificent architecture: Brunelleschi’s Duomo, the Ponte Vecchio, the Rialto Bridge, and the Trevi Fountain.

Detailed notes at the back of the book explain Anno’s journey and illuminate the many details hidden in each scene, while still leaving plenty for readers to discover on their own.

About the Author

Mitsumasa Anno was born in 1926 in Tsuwano, a small town nestled in the mountains of western Japan. Growing up surrounded by peaks and ocean, he developed a longing to see what lay beyond his isolated world. “Because my world was cut off from the outside world, first by the mountains and then by the ocean, the desire to go and see what lay on the other side grew stronger,” he once said. That curiosity never left him. After serving in the Japanese army during World War II, he spent ten years teaching mathematics in Tokyo. In 1968, he began his professional career as a picture book artist, bringing the same passion for learning that shaped his teaching to his artistic work.

Anno’s work earned him some of the highest honors in children’s literature, including the Hans Christian Andersen Medal in 1984, multiple first prizes for graphic excellence at the Bologna Children’s Book Fair, and selection for the New York Times Best Illustrated Books of the Year. In 2001, the Mitsumasa Anno Museum opened in his hometown of Tsuwano, designed by Anno himself, as a place where children could come and explore science, math, and imagination firsthand. A lover of travel and culture, Anno believed that beneath all our differences, the heart of every human being holds the same inherent value, and his books reflect that belief on every page.