Anno's Counting House

Beautiful Math #1

by Mitsumasa Anno

Anno's Counting House

Genres: Picture Books, Mathematics, Childrens, Counting, Number, Fiction

56 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 1981

About the author

His name is written as 安野光雅 in Japanese.

Mitsumasa Anno (born March 20, 1926) was a Japanese illustrator and writer of children's books, known best for picture books with few or no words. He received the international Hans Christian Andersen Medal in 1984 for his "lasting contribution to children's literature".

Source: Wikipedia.

Reviews

[Mathew · Rating 4 out of 5]

A beautifully crafted counting book that explores simple addition and subtraction up to ten through the use of two houses one on the recto and the other on the verso. In turning each page the reader reveals a cut-out view of one house with children in and then on the other a house front with tantalising glimpses through the windows. The following turn reveal an increasing amount of children who slowly move into this new home delivering a delicate and intriguing game of subtraction and addition. Highly commendable design.

[Asa Jacobs · Rating 3 out of 5]

Anno's Counting House is great book for helping students count, make assumptions, and observations. The beginning of the book contains instructions for parents or teachers to help them understand how this book can be utilized to help students learn to count many different things from this book. I have never encountered a picture book with a users guide before, but feel many students can benefit from this book. This book is difficult to describe but students can perform many different activities while flipping through the pages. Students can compare how many boys and girls are moving from one house to the next and keep track of these numbers with objects. They can also make observations about what the kids are doing in the houses as well as identifying shapes and colors. This book wouldn't be very beneficial without knowing how it should be utilized but any discerning parent would be able to use this book to teach valuable lessons. Students picking this book up would have a hard time figuring out how to use it which is the disadvantage to this book.

[Jessie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wordless. A group of ten people move from one house to another one by one, pointing at ideas of counting, different pairs that add to 10, and conservation. You could model this part of the story with a pair of ten frames, maybe?

There are also pages with the exteriors of the houses on top of the interior drawing such that you can only see some of the people in the house.

The houses are, as always in Anno's books, incredibly intricate, with lots of details to look at.

[Nitoy Gonzales · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't know if the problem is that I don't have the physical copy so I can't really appreciate this book, I don't really get the instruction (which is two page long) or that I'm so bad at math. Nevertheless, I like the artwork. I looks like a doll house with cute boy and girls dolls doing things in their little homes.

[Vo Khon · Rating 5 out of 5]

At the beginning, explain what these children in the book will do and we will count them. At the end, besides counting, we also can ask about which ones round or rectangle? What is under the table, etc.
And a good illustrated book.

[Heather · Rating 4 out of 5]

October 2017

[Mae · Rating 4 out of 5]

Summary: This wordless picture book focuses on children who move from one house to another. The "story" is told through the use of cut-aways and cut-outs. The "game" is played by counting the characters and items in the houses as the children move.

Critique: This book achieves the goal of teaching the concept of counting rather than focusing on the traditional arabic numbers. For example, in the first house, there are 3 barrels and 2 jars in the basement. Then there are two barrels and no jars. Then there is one. Then the barrels and jars appear in the new house. While this book definitely requires adult assistance to use, the fun of finding objects to count is worth it.

Curricular Tie: I would use this book as a game at a station where students could name an object they find on the first page, count it, and then try to find it as it moves by the end of the book. I wouldn't use this book in a large group setting as the drawings are too small and faint to see from any distance.

[Laura]

Anno, Mitsumasa. Anno's Counting House. (1982)

Annotation:This is a wordless picture book, but the is a suggested activity in the book before the story starts. One by one the boys and girls who live in the house on the left move to the house on the right. At the end all 10 of the boys and girls have moved to the house on the left.

Themes:counting, moving, boys and girls

Ways to use with children: You can use this book to talk about numbers or predict who will move next. There are suggested activities in the book as well.

Recommended ages:4- 10

[Larysa · Rating 2 out of 5]

Anno's Counting House is a concept picture book focusing on teaching children how to count, add, and subtract. The only words in the book are in the beginning when the author explains how to use the pictures to play a game and practice counting. I think the book had an interesting idea, but I was not impressed with the pictures. They were very old fashioned and did not have a great deal of color.

[mlb]

This is an international author and was mentioned in our textbook. I felt I had too many questions about the children and who they are/who they represent. The appear to be in costume. Their cultural background is ambiguous. I enjoyed the math theme of the book and the way it encourages children to read it multiple times to look for patterns in the way the characters move from house to house.

[Victoria Clay · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think this book is great for use in practicing addition and subtraction skills. It is very interactive for the children. My only criticism is that I found the instructions a little difficult to understand. However, if the instructions were clearly modeled and explained, then this could be a great activity for students.

[Devin · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was very elementary; may be used to teach kids the basics of subtraction or to help with cognitive developmental understanding that just becasue you can't see something, it doesn't mean that it ceases to exist. Use in p-1st grade.

[Deborah · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one is really about the deep understanding of math, and how to teach it to the youngsters. I had to read it twice, I'm going to keep it from the library for a while till I can figure out how to teach it to my kiddo's.

[Rachel · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is also wordless. It has holes in the houses for some of the windows, so it is like an engineered book too. The cut-outs would be fun for kids.

[Shunta · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good for little children learning to count

[Donna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wordless books draws readers in with the comings and goings of the children pictured moving between houses with cutaway windows. Activities are suggested in the book.

[Beth Schencker · Rating 4 out of 5]

A wordless book by author/illustrator Anno Mitsumasa, who won the Hans Christian Anderson Award for Illustration in 1985.