“Once someone said, upon seeing my pictures, ‘You amuse yourself by fooling people; you can’t draw without a mischievous spirit.’… My pictures are like maps, which perhaps only I can understand. Therefore, in following my maps there are some travellers who get lost. There are those who become angry when they discover they have been fooled; but there are also those who enter into the maze of my maps willingly, in an attempt to explore their accuracy for themselves.”

-Mitsumasa Anno

More about his life here. 

(Image source)

Anno’s Mysterious Multiplying Jar (1983) by Masaichiro and Mistumasa Anno.

“This story is about one jar and what was inside it.”

There was water in the jar…The rippling water became a wide, deep sea. 

On the sea was 1 island.

On the island there were 2 countries.

Within each country there were 3 mountains. 

On each mountain there were 4 walled kingdoms…

And through the pages of this book, kids visually learn about factorials and just how big these kinds of problems can grow to be. 

Such a simple set up for kids to grasp. So concrete with Mitsumasa Anno’s beautiful signature illustrations. Anno’s Mysterious Multiplying Jar is an absolute stand out when it comes to math picture books. An excellent choice to geek out with your kids on the power of numbers. 

The reason why there aren’t more books on math for kids of this caliber remains a question to be answered.