Book Introduction A picture book where different animals live on floor 10, floor 20, floor 30... and as you climb up 10 floors at a time, you naturally and easily learn to count from 1 to 100. The ten types of animals that appear—mice, squirrels, frogs, ladybugs, snakes, bees, woodpeckers, bats, snails, and spiders—are drawn in wonderfully imaginative and intricate detail, adding even more delight to the reading experience. The illustrations also reveal detailed information about each animal's habits and ecology, so this single book offers a wonderful three-in-one benefit. This picture book began when the author's daughter started first grade and began learning math, but had trouble grasping a sense of numbers. The author wondered if borrowing the structure of a book might make numbers easier to understand through an engaging picture book. Children can naturally absorb the concept of numbers through this fun story. The refreshing design has readers turn the book to read upward, letting little ones fully enjoy the feeling of climbing higher and higher, all the way up to the 100th floor. Story Summary Dochi receives a letter inviting him to visit someone who lives at the top of a 100-story house. Following the map included in the letter, he suddenly finds a huge house appearing before his eyes. Looking up, the top is hazy and can't be seen. Dochi opens the door and steps inside. First he meets mice, then squirrels, then frogs, then ladybugs... As he explores floor after floor, each home to different animals in groups of ten floors, he safely makes his way up to the 100th floor and meets Prince Spider, who sent the letter. Dochi and Prince Spider become friends and gaze at the stars together. Publisher's Review We consider it the greatest of good fortune to be able to publish this picture book about numbers, unlike anything seen before. While books meant to be read while turning upward have existed before, none have been designed to capture the feeling of climbing all the way up to the 100th floor quite like this one. What's more, the interior scenes revealed floor by floor are so wonderfully detailed, and the expressions and actions of the personified animals so full of humor, that children create their own stories each time they look through it again and again. A truly good picture book is one that holds a hidden well of stories—one that reveals something new every time you look, no matter how many times you've read it. This book has one overarching story while also containing individual stories for each group of ten floors: mice, squirrels, frogs, ladybugs, snakes, bees, woodpeckers, bats, snails, and spiders. We were very curious about who created this book and what process led to such a wonderfully imaginative picture book. We imagine readers feel the same curiosity. As it happens, the Japanese publisher's website that first released this book featured a detailed account from the author about how the book came to be. Since the author's own voice comes through so vividly in that piece, we've decided to summarize and share it here, as we believe it will help readers understand and enjoy the book even more. ...About two years ago, when my daughter started first grade and began learning math, she had trouble developing a sense of numbers. I thought about borrowing the structure of a book to turn it into an easy-to-understand picture book. If something is drawn on each of ten floors, and there are ten sets of these, that adds up to 100. I also thought it would be better if things were stacked up one by one into a large number, rather than simply lined up side by side—and that's when the idea of using a 100-story building came to me. So I first drew a simple house with about 20 floors. When my daughter saw it, she said, 'Daddy, tell me a story about this!' and was absolutely delighted. As we played and told stories together, I arrived at the idea of having the main character climb toward the 100th floor, and decided that reading the book by turning it upward would be the best way to express that height. If it worked well, I thought, it could become a completely new kind of book unlike anything before. That part went well, but once I actually got to work, creating the detailed story and designing a hundred different rooms for a hundred floors turned out to be no easy task, and it took...