By: Shaun Tan Publisher: Arthur A. Levine Books Average Rating: Binding: Hardcover Label: Arthur A. Levine Books Number of Items: 1 Number of Pages: 128 Publication Date: October 01, 2007 Reading Level: Ages 9-12
Product Description: "A shockingly imaginative graphic novel that captures the sense of adventure and wonder that surrounds a new arrival on the shores of a shining new city. Wordless, but with perfect narrative flow, Tan gives us a story filled with cityscapes worthy of Winsor McCay." -- Jeff Smith, author of Bone
"A magical river of strangers and their stories!" -- Craig Thompson, author of Blankets
"Magnificent." -- David Small, Caldecott Medalist
In a heartbreaking parting, a man gives his wife and daughter a last kiss and boards a steamship to cross the ocean. He's embarking on the most painful yet important journey of his life - he's leaving home to build a better future for his family. Shaun Tan evokes universal aspects of an immigrant's experience through a singular work of the imagination. He does so using brilliantly clear and mesmerizing images. Because the main character can't communicate in words, the book forgoes them too. But while the reader experiences the main character's isolation, he also shares his ultimate joy.
Incredible I picked up The Arrival expecting to, at the most, have a look at the first few pages. About half an hour later I was still standing in the exact same spot, staring at the last page and wondering if I had time to start over again.
This is not a comic or a graphic novel. There's no text at all, just pictures, and it's a testament to Shaun Tan's skill that the book still manages to tell an engrossing and deeply affecting story about emmigration, oppression and the difficulties inherent in leaving your family behind for a new life. The nameless protagonist travels from his home country to a fantasy city that resembles a very whimsical interpretation of somewhere like New York. He faces the same problems that any new arrival in a country must contend with, including finding a job and dealing with the unfamiliar local culture. The people he meets are frequently immigrants themselves, and share with him their own stories.
The Arrival works on a number of levels, and fully appreciating it will require some thought on the part of the reader. It's more than worth the effort, however, particularly when a seemingly bizarre image abruptly comes together and makes sense. (My favourite was probably the giant cyclopean men with the furnaces on their backs, and I'm still mulling over the exact meaning of the dragons in the main character's homeland.)
I highly recommend this to anyone who likes great artwork and a great and deeply moving story. Go in with an open mind and you definitely won't be disappointed.
Beautiful Gorgeous, wordless illustrations spin the story of an immigrant traveling to and settling into a new world. The beautiful strangeness of the images -- weird animals, meaningless symbols, incomprehensible tasks -- capture the disorientation of arriving in a new and alien place even as they fascinate. Adults will love this book as much as their children.
Beautifully rendered I was so intrigued with Tan's Tales from Outer Suburbia that I had to get this book. It is different from Suburbia in that no words are used to tell this intriguing and mysterious tale. It is one long story with one image per page to upward of twenty images. Tan artfully uses the graphic novel form to guide the viewer through a monochromatic world that is often surrealistic and absurd, yet never threatening or overbearing.
Suitable for both children and adults, and all will be enthralled with this magnificent story.
Simply Wonderful! I was not sure what this book was when I decided to order it. It has quickly become one of my very favorite books ever. The pictures are beautifully rendered and the story is an 'every immigrants' story. The thing that sets this aside from the average telling of a story of immigration is that it happens in a world none of us knows. There are very subtle but important differences in landscape and neighborhoods as well as animals, architecture, language, clothing etc that make you realize that though the storyline, the people, the feelings and emotions are so very familiar you can't put a finger on where the people are all coming from or where it is they have arrived. And the beauty of it all is that this graphic novel is in pictures only... no words. It is a silent movie on paper. A book to take your time looking for all the large and small details to help tell the story. This book will remain with me for many years to come and surely be one I not only look at over and over again, but share over and over again.
The Arrival The Arrival by Shaun Tan Once, as a boy, I was exploring the recesses of my grandmother's attic. Lifting the lid of an old trunk I discovered a thick envelope full of yellowed papers. The handwriting was ornate and fading; the language indecipherable - a mystery begging to be solved.
That's how I felt reading Shaun Tan's The Arrival. This engrossing book has the feel of old documents or a family album that has been lost for years. Pick it up and you hold in your hand the account of an immigrant who travels across cultures to a new land and a strange life. Yet this story is its own mystery to be solved because it is told entirely without words!
Pictures on each page reveal new clues to the story. Tan renders his drawings in pencil with a sepia tone and "water stains" that suggest the age and authenticity of a historical document once hidden between the rafters. Seen through the eyes of the protagonist who leaves his homeland, the culture of the new world is familiar and confounding at the same time. Buildings, street vendors, animals, foods, even kitchen utensils are foreign and confusing presenting complicated challenges for the main character. We find ourselves observing, analyzing, and interpreting this strange culture too.
And that's the fun of this book. We also must decipher and ascribe meaning to the images that create this story. Sometimes we even have to decide the order in which to "read" the sequential pictures! Tan's book gives a heart-felt voice to the immigrant experience and opens a window for anyone going abroad or welcoming new comers to their own land.
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