Common Sense Note
Parents need to know that there is little to be concerned about here. But though this is a wordless picture book, it's much too hard to follow for the usual picture book audience -- it's best for middle elementary and older.
Families can talk about the visual metaphors throughout the book. What do the origami birds represent? What are all those monstrous shadows of tails hanging over the city? Why did the author make everything look so strange? What are the pages of clouds all about? The pages of leaves?
Common Sense Review
Reviewed By: Matt Berman
In 2007 we had the unusual opportunity to watch the birth and evolution of a new art form. First there were comics, a popular but much derided medium that was essentially born around the turn of the 20th century, and then came into its own during the Depression. In the last quarter of the 20th century they evolved into the graphic novel, a new genre that only began to gain respect and prestige as the century drew to a close.
In the 21st century, the genre grew, prospered, and began winning mainstream literary awards, including the Printz Award for Young Adult Literature in 2006, for American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang. In 2007, Brian Selznick created a new branch of this thriving tree with The Invention of Hugo Cabret: A Novel in Words and Pictures. And now Shaun Tan has created yet another brand-new offshoot with THE ARRIVAL.
It has been called a graphic novel, but it bears little resemblance to others of that genre. It's completely wordless, and the pictures are a cross between scrapbook photos and storyboards for a silent movie. Done, incredibly, entirely in pencil, and tinted in sepia tones, it's visually almost entirely metaphorical -- only the people, an array of nationalities and ethnicities, are recognizable. Everything else is designed to engender in the reader the same kind of awe and confusion that an immigrant must feel on first arriving in a strange new country.
The Arrival is aimed at older children and adults, and kids will need some help from parents if they are to get anything out of it. It assumes a high degree of visual literacy, as well as familiarity with the immigrant experience. Even for older readers it rewards repeat viewing, and careful poring over and pondering each frame.
This brilliant and gorgeous book is in the vanguard of an evolution in literary and artistic forms. With the success of this book, as well as others mentioned above and in the Related Books section, we are likely to see a blossoming of new shoots and branches on the literary tree. If this is an example of the new directions they will take, long may they grow.
From The Book
Plot Summary:
In a country beset with shadows and fear, a man leaves his wife and daughter behind to travel to a new country. Everything there is alien to him, even the language and alphabet. But, with the help of kind strangers and new friends, he is eventually able to find an apartment, make food, get a job. And, finally, he is able to send for his wife and daughter.
Related Books:
Other Books by Shaun Tan:
The Viewer
The Rabbits
Memorial
The Lost Thing
The Red Tree
More Picture Books for Older Readers:
The Watertower by Gary Crew
Halloween by Jerry Seinfeld
A Christmas Memory by Truman Capote
The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick
The Discovery of Dragons by Graeme Base
Related Web Sites:
Author's Site
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ViolenceSome images of people running from monsters. Pictures of war include skeletons, an amputee, and shattered homes. |
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Drug/Alcohol/TobaccoCigarettes pictured. |
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