 | ON: Content is age-appropriate for kids this age. |
 | PAUSE: Know your child; some content may not be right for some kids. |
 | OFF: Not age-appropriate for kids this age. |
 | NOT FOR KIDS: Not appropriate for kids any age. |
The Arrival
- By Shaun Tan
- Genre: Historical Fiction
Common Sense Media says
Wordless book is a visual masterpiece.
Parents say
Kids say
What parents need to know
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.
What's the story?
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.
Is it any good?
THE ARRIVAL 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 upon 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 and others like it, 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.
What families can talk about
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?
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AGE
Visually stunning; immerses viewer in immigrant disorientation, fears, hope
An amazing, beautiful work; deeply affecting. But I got this for myself, not for kids -- it won't necessarily be accessible to younger viewers.
There are a few potentially disturbing images of just what various immigrants were fleeing. And note that the overall atmosphere/depiction of immigration is of going to a land where everything is strange and changed and slightly mysterious -- the script, the transportation, the food, the animals, the machines, the musical instruments, everything. The viewer him/herself is thereby experiencing what the immigrant experiences: the wonder, confusion, and disorientation of being in this strange new land. That's a powerful experience for the viewer with the context to understand it, but could be just baffling or off-putting for a younger kid. Despite some sad and scary memories of immigrants from various backgrounds, and difficulties and surprises in communicating, the main character finds help from other characters, and does eventually get to send for, and be re-united with, his family, so it has a positive message. If you look through it with a kid, to explain it, I could recommend it for 8+; otherwise, for viewing alone,
depending on a kid's familiarity with immigrant experience, a kid might need to be quite a bit older (12+?) to appreciate it.
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| Author: | Shaun Tan |
| Illustrator: | Shaun Tan |
| Book type: | Fiction |
| Genre: | Historical Fiction |
| Publisher: | Arthur A. Levine |
| Publication date: | October 1, 2007 |
| Number of pages: | 122 |
| Hardcover price: | $19.99 |
| Publisher's recommended age(s): | 10 - 14 |
| Read aloud: | 9 |
| Read alone: | 10 |
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