A review by mat_tobin
Anno's Journey by Mitsumasa Anno

4.0

The first in the series of Anno's journeys sees the little character of Anno take his horse across Europe. As with [b:Anno's U.S.A.|596698|Anno's U.S.A.|Mitsumasa Anno|https://d2arxad8u2l0g7.cloudfront.net/books/1176141703s/596698.jpg|1062761], Anno himself spent time travelling across the continent to study and explore the landscape and its people. The cultural references throughout not only give a nod to housing and the use of the land but to art and literature too. Don Quixote sits alongside The Enormous Turnip which the rich, double-page spreads pay homage to Millet, Renoir and Seurat amongst others. I really like Anno's statement on exploration at the back of the book and it is a phrase worth sharing with the child reader:

'By the end of my journey, I realised that I had set out not to collect information but to lose my way - and to discover the world you will find in this book.'