Anno's Italy

A strange, brilliant, and charming book. I have no idea how this could possibly be considered a children's book - unless your child moonlights as an AP art history teacher with the sense of humor and cultural reference points of a 70 year old.

But no matter.

This is such a fun, weird book. I bought it because (a) ITALY, (b) for children, (c) using drawings rich in architecture and perspective. AKA it wowed me the way David Macaulay's books have been wowing me. But whereas Macaulay is also a kind of visual jokester with a master draftsman's hand at drawing perspective and a love of architecture and deep, deep, DEEEEEEEP nerd study, and, okay, an old man and therefore with old cultural reference points, Anno's vision is just... weirder.

First, it's completely wordless. He has an “explanation” of the “scenes” at the very end, but the explanation is rambling, with many digressions just all over the place (most notably, the story of Jesus - Anno is not Christian and this is not a Christian book, per se, but he weaves in Jesus's story and iconography throughout, since it's “important to understanding Western art and culture” - and lots and lots of Renaissance art). You're invited, by the images, to peer very deeply and scrutinize them VERY closely. Anno certainly did. He seems to have hand-drawn every. single. blade. of. grass. in those large rural scene. Every brick in the town.

Oh yes, that's another thing. This book is more an “inspired by true events” portrayal of Italy: Anno makes a hodgepodge of historical periods and places. Brunelleschi's dome is dumped in some random small town. So is the Trevi Fountain. Every awning has the Italian flag on it. In a way, this makes things feel a little surreal. This is not an accurate portrayal of any one place. It's an ensemble of how Italy [makes Italian hand gesture] FEEEEELS. Except for the nationalist awnings, which is very unItalian.

My favorite cultural reference was the unexpected Bicycles Thieves moment.