Introductory activities

Picture books from childhood

Invite students to bring in picture books from their younger years, either from home or from the library. Each student should express what they remember feeling about the book and what they find most memorable/interesting/enjoyable about it.

Preparing to explore utopias and dystopias

Have students fold an A2 page in half OR join two A3 pages together (alternatively, use the front and back of an A3 page). On one side/half they should depict a ‘perfect’ world, while on the other they should depict an oppressive world (definitions of ‘oppressive’ should be examined). The depictions can include words, colours, or images that relate to urban places, technology, people, relationships, values, nature, activities, or food. These categories can be named during initial discussions about what students have included. Once identified, the categories can be used to stimulate more ideas for discussion. Display the pages OR store them until your study progresses to the social and physical setting of Shaun Tan’s The Lost Thing, which will involve a discussion of utopias and dystopias.

Considering the theme of belonging

Belonging is one of the central themes in this text. To get students thinking about different aspects of belonging, have them craft a mind map either on paper OR using an application like Bubbl.us or Popplet. The branches can include:

  • Groups that students were born into (e.g. culture, religion)
  • Groups that they voluntarily belong to
  • Groups that they are excluded from
  • For each of the above, what is required to belong to that group?
  • Feelings:
    • How it feels to belong to a group
    • How it feels to be excluded from a group

Think-puzzle-explore

Following the first reading of The Lost Thing, give students time to reflect on their initial response using the think-puzzle-explore routine. In contrast to a KWL activity, which focuses on fact accumulation and knowledge, this routine promotes more open-ended and inquiry-style responses that invite speculation and tentative interpretations. Responses can be used as a reference point for the conclusion of the unit, enabling students to reflect on how their understanding of The Lost Thing has evolved.

Resources
  • Butcher’s paper OR space on walls to assemble responses under the headings ‘Think’, ‘Puzzle’ and ‘Explore’
  • Sticky notes to assemble responses
  • Alternatively, a digital learning tool like Padlet to create a virtual board
Process

After reading the book together, give students extra time to read it for themselves and discuss their reactions with peers. Then distribute about six sticky notes per student. Display the following questions and allow time for students to write their responses on the notes:

  • What do you think you know about The Lost Thing (the book, not necessarily the character)?
  • What questions or puzzles do you have about the book?
  • How might you explore the puzzles you have about this book?

As students respond to each question, they can affix their sticky notes under the appropriate heading. Have them initial their contributions for later use and to help facilitate discussion. Choose some interesting responses and ask students to expand on their thoughts.

Students can revisit these responses with a reflective activity at the end of the unit (see the Informed Reaction section).

Key elements of the narrative

Structure and point of view

NOTE: For the purpose of tracking page numbers, the first page of the story is considered p. 2. To avoid confusion, the protagonist will be referred to as ‘Shaun’ while the author will be referred to as ‘Tan’.

A significant feature of Tan’s writing is its simplicity. Taken alone, the written text provides little detail about the narrative. The lost thing, for instance, can be read as a puppy-like creature if the words are considered by themselves. From the narrow perspective of the written text, the narrative is presented in the form of an anecdote that Tan offers directly to the reader (see p. 2). Despite the apparently bizarre nature of his encounter, Shaun adopts a dry and matter-of-fact tone, in keeping with his colourless surroundings. The anecdote itself is bookended by images of Shaun travelling on a tram; this framing device gives the impression that the anecdote is told within a single tram journey.

Have students identify conventional aspects of narrative structure and plot within the basic details offered by the written text. The elements of exposition, climax, and resolution are quite clear, but students may need support in identifying important conflicts. While there are minor conflicts with other characters in the story (most obviously Shaun’s parents), it is the conflict with society that is key. The nature of this society is explored below (see Setting), but the contrast between it and the lost thing’s eventual sanctuary is striking. The gentle and neutral tone of the narrative voice, and the fact that Shaun quietly and unquestioningly takes his solitary place back in society (resolution/denouement), may obscure for younger readers the rather bleak future he faces.

Tug-of-war
  • Draw a line on the whiteboard for a whole class activity, OR place a string across some desks for a small group activity – this represents the tug-of-war rope.
  • In the middle of the rope place the statement: ‘The Lost Thing has a happy ending’. Place the words ‘Yes’ and ‘No’ at opposite ends of the rope.
  • Distribute sticky notes so that students can generate as many ‘tugs’ on the rope as possible (i.e. record evidence that supports the statement on the ‘Yes’ side, and evidence that rejects the statement on the ‘No’ side).
  • Once they have placed a few ‘tugs’, have students evaluate the relative strength of the evidence, moving the stronger ‘Yes’ and ‘No’ points to their respective ends of the rope.
  • Identify any ‘what if?’ or ‘it depends’ statements and move these above the rope for later exploration.
  • If conducting this activity in small groups, have each group report back about its verdict and explain their thinking/discussion about the statement.

Characters

Shaun

The human who narrates The Lost Thing is not named in the story, but the postcard-style blurb on the back cover identifies him as ‘Shaun’. Although Tan has acknowledged that Shaun represents his personal response to the situation (see para. 5 on this webpage), it would unnecessarily complicate the reading of the book at a Year 7 or 8 level to bring in questions of autobiographical relevance. It is sufficient to concentrate on Shaun’s ordinariness and conventionality as befits the uniformity of the society in which he lives.

The lost thing

This character is illustrated in a way that produces puzzlement and curiosity. It is an odd combination of mechanical and organic parts, something it shares with other ‘things’ in the book. The inspiration for The Lost Thing came from one of Tan’s sketches, which depicted a small man talking to a huge crab. While the lost thing does not speak in this story, we get the impression that – despite its size – it is gentle and vulnerable.

  • Have students locate evidence in the images or written text that supports the reading that the lost thing is gentle and vulnerable. Could any other adjectives apply?
  • After looking at the physical qualities of the lost thing and other ‘things’ in the book (pp. 26–27), students can draw or construct their own ‘thing’. These creations can be hung around the classroom to create a menagerie of ‘things’.
Pete

Shaun’s artistic friend Pete offers a point of contrast to the uniformity of other characters and human figures in the book. The swirly, colourful lines in his artwork suggest that he sees the world differently and is willing to look at it from different perspectives – a point emphasised by him sitting on a rooftop looking over the neighbourhood, and by Shaun noting that he has an opinion about everything. Pete’s dialogue also reveals that he is willing to suggest alternative points of view and is comfortable with uncertainty (see p. 10). Interestingly, although Pete is more ‘colourful’ than other characters, with his bright shirt and wavy hair, he is still constrained by the society in which he lives; according to the postcard on the back cover, he studies ‘Applied Industrial Algebra’.

Setting

The centrality of Tan’s images to any reading of The Lost Thing is highly relevant in relation to the setting, both physical and social. Apart from the reference to the windowless building that houses the Department of Odds and Ends (p. 21), Tan makes very few comments on the book’s grim setting. Studying The Lost Thing presents an ideal opportunity to clarify the distinction between the physical and social settings of a narrative.

The images contain many ‘clues’ about the kind of society in which Shaun lives, including what it values (e.g. precision, growth, conformity, rules/order) and what it doesn’t (e.g. the natural world, art, freedom, individuality). The sanctuary of ‘things’, where the curvy arrows lead, can be juxtaposed with the images of urban life to reveal a binary of places. In the sanctuary, the word ‘utopia’ is written on a wall almost in the centre of the image (pp. 26–27). By extension, this allows readers to consider the physical and social urban setting as an example of dystopia. This would be a good time to revisit the Introductory Activity about ‘perfect’ and ‘oppressive’ worlds (Preparing to Explore Utopias and Dystopias) and relate it to The Lost Thing.

See, think, wonder

The ‘see, think, wonder’ process can be modelled for the class as follows.

See
  • Give students two to three minutes to examine ONE page silently on their own (e.g. p. 3, on which Shaun begins his story).
  • Invite students to share what they can see, emphasising that interpretations are not expected at this stage. Guide them by explaining that they should be able to physically point to the thing that they are observing on the page. List these observations on the board.
Think
  • Ask students what they think the image reveals about the physical world of the story. List these responses under the heading ‘Physical Setting’.
  • Ask students what they think the image reveals about the society in which the story takes place. Guiding questions can be useful here – what might people find important or unimportant in this society? What is missing from this world (according to this image)? Would you like to go on a holiday here? Why or why not? List these responses under the heading ‘Social Setting’.
Wonder
  • Ask students if their observations and thoughts have generated any puzzling questions. As a guide, these questions should move beyond the page under scrutiny to broader themes and ideas in the book. Perhaps they can finish this sentence: ‘I wonder why/whether/if/who …’

Once you have worked through this process as a class, students may select their own page from The Lost Thing and complete the steps on their own. Then, in groups of three to four, they can share their interpretations of the physical and social settings, supported by evidence from the illustrations. In their groups, students should select three or four ‘wonders’ to share with the class.

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The writer’s craft

Audience and form

The Lost Thing is usually considered a picture book, a form that connotes an audience of young children. An argument might be made, however, that The Lost Thing works as a graphic short story, in the same way that ‘graphic novel’ suggests a complexity of ideas beyond a comic book. The richness of detail, depth of ideas, and cultural references and allusions enable adults to gain much from the story, while the simple narrative and quirky humour appeal to younger readers. Engaging in a discussion about audience and picture book expectations is a fruitful way to foreground concepts of audience and form for students. Tan has written on this subject in an essay called ‘Picture books: who are they for?’, in which he offers a number of insights that are relevant to a study of The Lost Thing.

Visual style and conventions

There are many resources that describe visual language conventions, including:

Beyond the visual literacy needed to understand and interpret images, The Lost Thing requires readers to comprehend the types of transitions suggested between panels. A good example of this occurs on pp. 8–9, which shows Shaun asking people about the lost thing. The three large panels on the right resemble a triptych depicting the same physical location, indicated by the continuation of pipework across panels. By splitting the scene into three segments, Tan is able to locate Shaun and the lost thing in each panel, thereby indicating the passage of time. This passage is also reflected by the gradually dissipating cloud in the square panels above the triptych.

In his seminal work Making Comics (first published in 2006), cartoonist and comics theorist Scott McCloud identified six types of panel transitions, which can be deployed to achieve different effects:

1. Moment to moment A single action or event depicted in a series of moments
2. Action to action A single subject (person, object, animal) performing a sequence of actions
3. Subject to subject Different subjects depicted in the same scene
4. Scene to scene Significant jumps across space or time
5. Aspect to aspect Different aspects of a place, idea or mood
6. Non sequitur A set of seemingly unrelated panels (there is no example of this in The Lost Thing)

You can find an extract from Making Comics (including illustrated examples and explanations of the six transitions) on pp. 237–240 of SpringBoard English Textual Power: Senior English. Students can read the extract and find examples of panel sequences from The Lost Thing that correspond to each type of transition.

Symbolism

The Lost Thing presents many opportunities to develop students’ understanding of symbolism, which will also help them generate their own interpretations of individual images and the whole text. The symbols can be discussed in terms of:

Colours Notably, the juxtaposition between Shaun’s bleak world and the utopian ‘thing’ sanctuary emphasises certain qualities of each place.
Panel layout An interesting example is the sideways layout of pp. 26–27. The reader’s compulsion to turn the book sideways can be read as symbolising the importance of looking at things differently.
Objects in the text There are so many to choose from, but interesting examples include the metal flower in Shaun’s living room (p. 13), the clusters of rules and signs, and the stack of forms at the Department of Odds and Ends (p. 19).
Written text in the images These appear on signs and walls, like the word ‘MORE’ overlooking the beach scene (p. 4), and in fragments pasted into the images, which link with the background on almost all pages.
Actions The example of the crowd walking in the same direction (p. 17), or Pete and Shaun conversing on the roof (p. 10), symbolises broader ideas around conformity, differing perspectives, monotony, and so on.

Using these categories, students can identify other elements from the text that could symbolise something greater than the thing itself.

Elements of construction

Resources
  • Five or six copies of The Lost Thing, each open on a different double-page spread (NOT one that has already been used for analysis/close reading)
  • Small, narrow sticky notes in a range of colours
  • Index cards cut in half (five to seven card halves per student)
Process

Arrange the double-page spreads around the classroom, akin to an exhibition. Inform students that each sticky note will correspond to a different aspect of The Lost Thing’s construction. Print out the analysis key (PDF, 43KB), affix different coloured sticky notes to the first column, and display it in a prominent position for the class.

Ask students to identify FIVE features in any of the double-page spreads that correspond to an element of construction. They should attach a sticky note, labelled with their initials, near the feature they have identified. Importantly, they can only use each colour ONCE. This will produce a striking visual indication of the range and regularity of Tan’s techniques.

For each feature that they identify, students should write a brief explanation of how it encourages particular readings related to character, setting (social or physical), theme, and plot. They should write each explanation on a separate index card half, then arrange it near the relevant double-page spread in the ‘exhibition’. These cards can also be colour-coded with the relevant sticky note, enabling students to quickly observe the same element of construction working to different ends across the text (i.e. characterisation, setting, thematic development).

Making meaning

Tan has written and spoken extensively about his approach to art, which respects what the reader or viewer brings to a work. His sparse writing, coupled with detailed images that resist classification, results in texts that invite readers/viewers to draw on their own knowledge and experiences to create meaning. In this interview, for instance, Tan relates the experience of showing The Lost Thing to friends and getting diametrically opposed responses (7:30–8:30). The State Library of Victoria has another useful video on this topic in which Tan answers the question: ‘do you encourage open interpretation of your work?’ Indeed, the narrator of The Lost Thing denies the reader a moral lesson (p. 29), essentially challenging them to figure it out for themself.

The question of making meaning from The Lost Thing is addressed quite extensively in Tan’s aforementioned essay (‘Picture books: who are they for?’). This is essential reading for any teacher embarking on a study of the book, particularly para. 12–15 (roughly halfway through the essay, up to the sentence where Tan introduces the two oppositional types of visual literacy).

Development of themes

Support students to generate their own interpretations of the text by scaffolding ways of bringing their own understandings and experiences to their readings. Beyond making meaning from individual images, scaffolding a form of pattern recognition can help create meaning for the book as a whole. The retrieval chart for this activity (PDF, 48KB) offers some themes to focus on, but can be modified at your discretion (e.g. a blank column for students to identify a different theme). Each row  identifies a different aspect of the text that connects or relates to the theme; the point here is to assemble the textual elements that can be read as contributing to the theme in some way. Explaining the connection between these elements and the theme will then encourage students to make statements about the theme.

In an essay for ABC Radio National’s Lingua Franca program, Tan uses the metaphor of a battery to imagine the meaning-making dynamic between text and reader (para. 5). What will become evident from the retrieval chart is that a range of textual elements combine to develop a theme, creating cohesion among the elements that can support certain readings more successfully than others.

After identifying the textual elements that relate to the themes in the chart, guide students in their interpretation by asking them to:

  • Outline the role of a particular element in developing a theme
  • Explain if the element suggests any ideas about the theme
  • Describe if the element serves any other themes
  • Rank the elements in order of their significance to the development of a theme, and explain this ranking (especially the top and bottom elements)

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Comparison with other texts

Artistic influences

Tan is a recognised artist as well as an illustrator. It may be useful to show students some of the work from his archive to see if they can identify recurring ideas, themes, and imagery. Tan talks about the influences on his work in his FAQs, specifically mentioning Jeffrey Smart and Edward Hopper. The influence of Smart’s Cahill Expressway (1962) is evident in The Lost Thing’s cover, and a similar painting hangs in Shaun’s living room on p. 13. Tan also references the well-known John Brack  painting, Collins St, 5p.m. (1955), on p. 17.

Exposing students to these influences presents an opportunity for a stimulating set of comparative exercises. Display the following artworks for students:

Distribute the artistic influences worksheet (PDF, 47KB) and model how to answer the questions for the first artwork. Students can complete the rest of Part 1 by themselves, then attempt Part 2. Relevant collections of the artists’ work can be found here:

Other influential artists mentioned by Tan include Hieronymus Bosch and Spanish Surrealists. Searching for ‘Spanish Surrealist art’ will yield plentiful results to give students a sense of the colour, vibrancy, and often bizarre subject matter of Surrealism – qualities that can also be seen in the utopian sanctuary on pp. 26–27 of The Lost Thing. One of Bosch’s most famous works is The Garden of Earthly Delights: a triptych depicting Paradise and Hell on the left and right respectively, with a central panel that shows carousing people and animal figures in a strange landscape.

NOTE: Bosch’s work contains adult content that may be unsuitable for Year 7/8 students.

Adaptations

The Lost Thing has inspired a number of significant works in other creative fields, including a live musical performance and a stage production (Jigsaw Theatre Company, 2005). Of course, the most significant adaptation is the animated short film, which has won numerous awards around the world, including an Oscar for Best Animated Short Film. Students will undoubtedly be keen to see this adaptation (accessible with a ClickView subscription), and it presents an excellent opportunity to examine different aspects of multimodality. ACMI’s comprehensive learning resource would be very well suited to a unit of work on the film.

Film to book comparison

Comparing the original Lost Thing with its film adaptation allows students to consider what each mode allows (or disallows) in terms of storytelling and reader/viewer interactions.

Before viewing the film, ask students to imagine what challenges the filmmakers may have faced in adapting the book for screen. For example:

  • How will the ‘things’ move?
  • What sounds will they make?
  • What kind of voice will the narrator need?
  • How should the soundtrack sound?

The are many interviews and articles that explore the production process for the film; several are listed under More Resources.

The case of Pete

The film adaptation stays true to the book, but there is a significant change to Pete’s character, who is no longer an ‘artistic type’ but someone driven by the scientific method.

Generate a discussion about the possible reasons for the change in Pete’s character. This could be conducted in small groups, with students roleplaying a production meeting to debate the change. They could brainstorm the pros and cons of the change, and connect this to other aspects of construction such as thematic cohesion, plot, and character.

Significance

Prior to writing The Lost Thing, Tan worked successfully as an illustrator with other Australian writers like Gary Crew (The Viewer, Memorial) and John Marsden (The Rabbits). The Lost Thing represented a turning point in Tan’s career when he took creative control of the text to realise his own vision. Its success allowed him to pursue other projects and challenges, including murals; sculptures based on Grimms’ Fairy Tales; and an app based on his picture book Rules of Summer. One of his most critically acclaimed works is the textless graphic novel The Arrival, which is also featured on Reading Australia.

These examples demonstrate that, in the years since The Lost Thing was published, Tan has built a diverse body of work that has cemented him as a serious and respected creative innovator both at home and globally. His non-fiction writing and speeches about his work reveal an insightful and generous contributor to the public discourse around art and literature (and the point at which they intersect).

The Lost Thing has also pushed the boundaries of what constitutes a picture book. Structurally and stylistically, one could argue that it more closely resembles a graphic novel (apart from its length). In this sense, the book invites us to consider a new category – the graphic short story – which does not narrow its perceived audience or diminish its ideas.

Rich assessment task (receptive mode)

Panel discussion

This task is the culmination of previous activities that encouraged students to articulate their interpretations of the book’s themes. Panel discussions are ideal vehicles for students to demonstrate their understandings and gain experience engaging in literary discourse. The rest of the class will also benefit from listening to different interpretations and responses to The Lost Thing. Since the panel discussion requires students to synthesise knowledge and skills from previous lessons, extensive preparation time is not required. Even so, at the Year 7/8 level, students may gain confidence by practising within their friendship groups.

Here are some suggested guidelines:

  1. Divide students into groups of four or five.
  2. Each group member will prepare comments specifically addressing:
    1. Their personal response to The Lost Thing
    2. Ideas that the book triggered for them in relation to any of the identified themes
    3. An image from the book that seemed particularly powerful or meaningful, with an explanation of why they chose it
  3. Each panel discussion should equate to an average speaking time of two minutes per student (i.e. 10 minutes for a five-member group).
  4. Create a simple set of prompt cards and place them face-down near the panel. Should they struggle to keep the discussion flowing, they can flip over the top card to shift the discussion to that topic. Prompts may address images, themes, ideas, audience, visual style, concepts of dystopia/utopia, characterisation, social setting, physical setting, etc.
  5. Provide some guidance regarding the purpose and conventions of a panel discussion; namely, it is not a debate in which points are awarded for rebutting other people’s contributions. Rather, all panellists are responsible for the success of the discussion by maintaining the flow of ideas and elaborating on points raised. This means coming prepared with questions for the other panellists and willingly responding to their comments, whether to agree, disagree, elaborate, seek clarification, or support with other examples.

The panel discussion guide (PDF, 90KB) may be useful to help students understand the conventions and expectations of this task. If this is their first attempt at a panel discussion, you could show them examples such as:

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Post-study reflection

Return to the Think-Puzzle-Explore activity completed at the start of the unit (Initial Response > Introductory Activities). You can ask students to respond to the first two questions again, allowing them to reflect on how their thinking and understanding has developed:

  • What do you think you know about The Lost Thing (the book, not necessarily the character)?
  • What questions or puzzles do you have about the book?

Provide some guidance by drawing students’ attention to character, theme, plot, and so on. You might like to use sticky notes in a different colour to the first attempt to clearly differentiate the ‘before’ and ‘after’ responses. Again, all responses should be initialled.

The third question can be altered to highlight the ways students have explored their initial puzzles:

  • How have we explored the puzzles we had about this book?

By adding these new responses to the first set, you can facilitate a class discussion, set up small group discussions, or ask for more formal written responses that address the shifts in students’ thinking and understanding.

Rich assessment task (productive mode)

This major creative task requires students to incorporate their understanding of picture book conventions AND expand on one of The Lost Thing’s themes. Students have explored how Shaun Tan took inspiration from various sources when constructing The Lost Thing. In this task, they will take inspiration from The Lost Thing to construct their own picture book.

Students need to make two decisions for their book: one based on theme and one based on elements of construction.

Theme

Students are to select ONE theme from The Lost Thing around which they would like to construct a picture book. Themes include (but are not limited to): conformity, dystopia/utopia, creativity, individuality, bureaucracy, modern life, art, friendship, belonging. You may have placed varying degrees of emphasis on these themes with your class, so some guidance will be appropriate.

Elements of construction

Students will select one or more elements from The Lost Thing to ‘flesh out’ in their own work. Elements they might explore include:

  • Presenting a day in the life of Shaun’s mother and/or father, who are only shown on one page
  • Imagining what happens in the utopian world glimpsed in the book (perhaps taking one of the ‘things’ and making it the main character)
  • Putting Shaun’s friend Pete into a story of his own
  • Selecting one of the many character ‘extras’ and writing a similar retelling from their perspective
  • Imagining what happened to the lost thing before Shaun found it (how did it get to the beach?)

Presentation

This assessment focuses on students’ ability to produce a thematically cohesive narrative, supported by visual elements. As students will have varying degrees of skill and confidence with visual art forms, they should be free to select their preferred medium to create the supporting visual components. Options include:

  • Hand drawing (in their own style OR inspired by Tan)
  • Cartooning
  • Photography (including photographing plasticine/clay figures)
  • Digital art tools (e.g. Pixton)
  • Montage (combining any of the above with other media)

Writer’s/artist’s statement

To help you assess the intellectual inputs for this creative task, students should submit a short statement about their decision-making. They should not only explain what they hoped to communicate to the reader about the selected theme, but also outline the narrative and visual elements that they chose to foreground their ideas about the theme.

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