The Arrival

Teacher Resource Essay

Publisher's synopsis

A unique 128-page, textless graphic novel, in black, white and sepia, The Arrival draws its inspiration from tales of migrants in past and recent times. The central character is a middle-aged man who arrives in a strange new place and tries to find a place to live, a job and a handle on a new language. He encounters many challenges, all described entirely through visual sequences. The absence of words emphasises the strangeness of the situation and the loneliness experienced by many migrants, but the ending is full of affirmation and hope, when the wife and son the migrant had to leave behind are finally able to join him in their new homeland.

Awards

Winner 2006 Western Australian Premier’s Book Awards, Premier’s Prize
Winner 2006 Western Australian Premier’s Book Awards, Children’s Books
Winner 2007 New South Wales Premier’s Literary Awards, Community Relations Commission Award
Winner 2007 Children’s Book Council of Australia Picture Book of the Year
Winner 2008 Angoulême International Comics Festival Prize for Best Comic Book for Là où vont nos pères (French edition of The Arrival)
Winner 2011 Peter Pan Award (Swedish translation of The Arrival)
Nominated 2008 Hugo Award for Best Related Book
Nominated 2008 Hugo Award for Best Professional Artist

Other Recommended Titles

The One Day of the Year

The Great Gatsby

The Red Shoe

Blue

Shaun Tan

Shaun Tan grew up in Perth and graduated from the University of Western Australia with joint honours in Fine Arts and English Literature. He began drawing and painting images for science fiction and horror stories in small-press magazines as a teenager, and has since become best known for illustrated books that deal with social, political and historical subjects through surreal, dream-like imagery. His works include The Red Tree, The Lost Thing, Rules of Summer and the acclaimed wordless novel The Arrival. All have been widely translated throughout Europe, Asia and South America, and are enjoyed by readers of all ages.

Shaun has also worked as a theatre designer and a concept artist for the films Horton Hears a Who and Pixar’s WALL-E and in 2011, he shared an Academy Award for his work on the animated short film based on his book, The Lost Thing. In that same year, he won the Dromkeen Medal for services to children’s literature and the Astrid Lindgren prize, the world’s richest children’s literature award.

Photo courtesy of Hachette Australia

"If a good picture is worth a thousand words, what is Shaun Tan's book worth? Down-to-earth and human as well as visionary, he ranges wide and says much with his book-art, showing us the way into new realms of book-making as well as into insights, feelings and points of view that must enhance every reader's thinking on the fraught subject of changing country and culture."

An ASA Council Member on why this book is in the Reading Australia First 200 list.

Further Details

Author Shaun Tan

Publisher Hachette Australia

Date of Publication 2006

ISBN 9780734406941 (print)

Category Graphic Novels

SCIS number

5467473