Socrates and the Three Little Pigs by Mitsumasa Anno and Tuyosi Mori

I checked this book out so many times from the library at the school where I worked once that the librarian just gave it to me. It was quite a generous gift (though I did donate a bunch of books in exchange) because this book is out of print and while you can still get a used copy it is quite expensive.

Where do I start as to the reasons why I think this book is a gift to humanity (or at least to the likes of me)?

First of all it is based on the Three Little Pigs.
Second of all, unlike any other contemporary treatment of a classic fairy tale in which all the characters are neutered, de-clawed, politically corrected and taught to live in peace and harmony with all in a gender neutral and pseudo-socialist society through a great moral taught to all innocent bystanders with the elegance and the lightness of a wrecking ball, this fairy tale is used in a lovely way, as a recognizable structure on which the story hangs.
Of course there is not that much of a story, because the book is really about math.
It is also about a not so big (rather skinny, actually, because he uses up most of his energy on thinking) and not so bad wolf named Socrates, who would be happy just thinking all day, except that his rather spoiled and plump wolf-wife Xanthippe wants him to go out and catch one of the adorable three little pigs sitting in their little houses. Lucky for the pigs, Socrates spends the entire book chatting with his mathematician friend Pythagoras the frog about the probabilities of the pigs being located in one of the five houses in the meadow where they all live. There are elaborate charts and graphs that visually explain the concepts described by Socrates and Pythagoras and serene domestic scenes, that mostly feature the voluptuous Xanthippe being sensually impatient with the pig-acquiring process.

Here are some photos I took of the pages, in case nothing above makes sense:

 

A third reason, and this is probably a bit personal but I'll share it anyway, I love this book because there were many times in my life when I would ask someone very smart and very clever a simple question or make a simple request only to be faced with an albeit fascinating and enlightening, but entirely useless discourse on a loosely related topic. Given the fact that this book is written by two people closely connected to all things mathy, I suspect that the pain of Xanthippe's plight was not lost to them. While to the uninitiated she might come off as being needy, demanding and spoiled (like at the beginning when she tells Socrates to go find food while pulling on a rope she has tied to his tail), those of us who have been left hungry in the face of the pursuit for knowledge and ideas will absolutely recognize her as the victim and the unsung hero of the tale.

I thoroughly recommend this book to all those who appreciate a bit of hard core geekery in a loosely romantic picture book context.  Anno's other intricately and cleverly illustrated books are really famous as well - both in the intellectual and in the visual context, but I am a bigger fan of this one by far. Look for it in your local library and maybe ask if you can have it if you like it and your librarian likes you.