"Adventure awaits the sharp-eyed browser in this unique and entertaining book. Mitsumasa Anno's paradoxical paintings, full of superreal details of plausible impossibilities, provide a fascinating introduction to the ABCs. His playful, three-dimensional images call for eyes unprejudiced by conventional notions of perspective. Each letter is painted as if carefully made of wood. But look again! Something is oddly wrong with each perfect-looking letter. The "M" is only half there; its other half is merely a mirror image. The "D" curves as mysteriously as a Möbius strip. Each letter is matched with a wit-twisting picture, and in the borders are more things: flowers, animals, and whimsical creatures of all kinds for clever observers to discover with delight. A glossary at the end helps the reader to identify these. Children who learn their ABCs with this book gain, beyond a tool for reading, insights into the arbitrariness not merely of language but of all conceptual systems, insights that are indispensable for creative thinking. Mr. Anno's marvelous trompe l'oeil paintings abound in fascinating surprises and visual puns. They lead the eye into the magical world of the artist's lively imagination, and encourage the reader to use his own eyes and mind joyfully and creatively." -- Book Jacket.