The Arrival

The Arrival
written and illustrated by Shaun Tan, 2006, New York: Arthur A. Levine Books. (0439895294).

Author/Illustrator Website: http://www.shauntan.net/

Media: pencil on paper

Awards and Honors: New South Wales Premier's Literary Award; 2006 Cybils Award; Bologna Ragazzi Award, Special Mention; Spectrum Award; Junior Library Guild Selection; World Fantasy Artist of the Year; A Publishers Weekly Best Book of 2007; A New York Times Best Illustrated Book of 2007; Amazon.com's Best Teen Book of 2007; 2007 Parents' Choice Gold Award; A Book Sense Winter 2007-2008 Top Ten Children’s Pick; A New York Public Library Best Book for Reading and Sharing; A New York Times Notable Children’s Book of 2007; Rocky Mountain News, A Top Ten Book of the Year; The Columbus Dispatch, A Best Book of 2007; Booklist Editors' Choice 2007; A School Library Journal Best Book of 2007; A Washington Post Best Book for Young People for 2007; Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books Blue Ribbon for Fiction; ALA Notable Children's Book, 2008; ALA Top Ten Best Books for Young Adults, 2008; ALA Top Ten Great Graphic Novels for Teens, 2008; Horn Book Fanfare Book 2007; Metropolitan Home Magazine's Design 100, 2008; An IRA Notable Book for a Global Society, 2008; 2008 Locus Award, Best Art Book; 2008 Boston Globe-Horn Book Award, special citation for Excellence in Graphic Storytelling; CCBC Choices 2008; Nominated for an International Horror Guild Award, Illustrated Narrative

Annotation: 
A wonderfully surreal, wordless tale of immigration and the experience of being a stranger in a strange land.

Personal Reaction:
     Wonderfully surreal, visually stunning and absolutely unique, The Arrival is a masterpiece of the graphic novel genre. The completely wordless book, lushly illustrated in sepia-toned pencil drawings, tells the story of one man who leaves his country behind to build a new life for himself and his family. It's cinematic in the truest sense of the word- you don't read this book, you experience it. The illustrations are rich and evocative with more than a hint of steampunk to them- Tan combines old-fashioned looking elements with fantastical futuristic settings. It's easy to get caught up in the strangeness of the world in which the nameless protagonist lives, until you realize that Tan has created this curious and astonishing setting to show the reader what it feels like to be a stranger in a strange land. The Arrival's universality is what really makes it special. Immigration is a weighty part of the human experience and because Tan tells the tale entirely through pictures, speakers of any language, both young and old can experience this magnificent story.