Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #42708 in Books
• Published on: 1999-06-21
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 40 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Anno (Anno's Mysterious Multiplying Jug; Anno's Hat Tricks) offers another worthy addition to his collection of playful stories with mathematical themes. A brief prelude tells of a wizard who gives happy-go-lucky Jack two golden seeds and directs him to eat one and bury the other: "I promise you it will grow and give you 2 more magic seeds in the fall." Jack does as he is told, and the cycle repeats for a number of years, until Jack decides one fall to bury both seeds. As Jack buries more and more seeds each consecutive year, readers are challenged with a series of questions ("How many seeds grew that year?"; "How many seeds did they bury?"). The mathematical gymnastics become even more rigorous as Jack marries, has a child, begins to store some seeds and sell others... until a hurricane wipes out the crops and Jack must begin all over again. Kids on the older end of the targeted age span will have fun with this, and although the arithmetic is well beyond those on the younger end, they'll enjoy Anno's lilting, linear narrative-as well as his soft, appealingly primitive watercolors. Ages 3-7.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal
Kindergarten-Grade 3?A happy-go-lucky young man and some magic seeds are the familiar elements of this deceptively simple tale. Anno provides the enchantment. An old man gives Jack two golden seeds and a simple formula for becoming self-sufficient. He faithfully follows the directions, eating one of the seeds, which amazingly takes care of his hunger for the year, and planting the other the following spring, which produces two new seeds. He enjoys several years of easy subsistence until he decides to fend for himself one winter and plant both seeds. The next and each successive season begin a geometric progression of harvests?2 sprouts produce 4 seeds (one of which he eats), 3 plants produce 6 seeds, 5 yield 10, etc. In no time at all, he has a bountiful surplus and shares his wealth first with Alice, who becomes his wife, and eventually their son. Even when a hurricane devastates their crops and storehouse, 10 seeds are saved and the family begins anew. Anno illustrates the multilayered story (and its mathematical operations) with his trademark spare, clear watercolors using metallic gold circles to represent the stored seeds and red ones for those that are consumed. Pictorially and conceptually, he explores the fundamental magic of planting and harvesting crops in this celebration of life and its many riches.?Luann Toth, School Library Journal
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
Ages 5^-8. Jack meets a wizard who gives him two magic seeds and instructs him to eat one, which will

sustain him for a full year, and to plant the other. The following spring, the plant bears two seeds. Jack eats one and plants the other, as he does for several years until he determines to plant both seeds. The next year he has two plants each bearing two seeds, so he eats one seed and plants the other three. Six seeds! As the years go by, he marries, raises a family, plants many crops, endures a flood, and saves enough seeds to feed his family and start planting again. Told in folktale style, this symbolic story charts the development of agriculture. Teachers could use the eating, planting, harvesting, marketing, and storing of precise numbers of seeds as a mathematics lesson (though expect some confusion around the eighth year), but underlying the plot is a celebration of life's goodness and of the fundamental magic of planting a seed and watching it grow. From the first simple pictures of Jack and his plant to the last double-page spread echoing Millet's painting The Angelus, Anno's pleasing watercolor artwork illuminates this thoughtfully designed picture book. Carolyn Phelan

Customer Reviews

Smart book for smart kids
Deceptively simple in the beginning, this story builds in complexity and excitement from start to finish. It is an intelligent story made exciting through mathematics. Anno's Magic Seeds is a clever introduction to the concept of investing toward the future. As always, the illustrations are lovely.

A major disappointment
Love Mitsumasa Anno's other books, but the wonderful intricate drawings are missing from this book, and the story is easily 60% too long, especially for children.

Creative Math Lesson
Anno's books are great for teaching fun math lessons. I readthe book to my sixth graders and had them figure the answers to thequestions as we went. They loved it! They really have to listen carefully, so it makes a great lesson in listening skills as well.