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.