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Davey929, December 27, 2009 (view all comments by Davey929)
I found ‘The Arrival’ in the children's section of Powell's, but it is far more than a picture book. It is a graphic novel that needs no words to tell the story. The pictures are beautifully done, depicting a bizarre, lovely, and terrifying world. The story of alienation and immigration to a strange new place appeals to anyone who has felt they didn't quite fit in to another culture.
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crowyhead, September 8, 2009 (view all comments by crowyhead)
This is a gorgeous, wordless graphic novel that uses a combination of familiarity and surreality to tell what is at its heart simply the story of an immigrant in a new land.
Not only would I happily have almost any page from this book framed on my wall, but Tan manages to tell a complete story with absolutely no words, no small feat. The individual stories and the emotions of the characters come through loud and clear, and the end result is a book that had me finishing it and flipping back to the front to read it all over again.
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kozie, January 19, 2009 (view all comments by kozie)
this is absolutely wonderful.
even from just the drawing them selves draws attention. the little details that is drawn into the frames, the indepth story of a imaagrant. it can be so much agreed by all and know the feeling. shaun tan has shown that. and he also has shown that emotion that most canot know by images that creates the emotion. recommend 100%
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Shoshana, December 19, 2008 (view all comments by Shoshana)
Despite the Arthur A. Levine imprint, this gorgeous and startling book is not a children's or young adult publication, though it would be appropriate for readers of any age. Tan depicts the immigrant's experience poignantly, viscerally, and with great complexity, all without any text. (Text does appear, but like the unnamed immigrant protagonist, we cannot read it.) Tan has done a wonderful job of evoking the wonder and the fear inherent in new surroundings. Each of the characters the protagonist interacts with has his or her own back story to explain the circumstances that compelled their travel (or flight) from their homelands. Tan's drawings depict emotion and action very clearly and it is easy to follow the narrative. Subsequent readings reveal both ominous and hilarious details.
The creatures that accompany people in the new world reminded me a little of Philip Pullman's daemons, as visualized by Edward Gorey.
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Product details
128 pages
Arthur A. Levine Books -
English9780439895293
Reviews:
"Staff Pick"
by Jill S.,
Shaun Tan, one of my favorite children's book illustrators, draws upon hundreds of years worth of immigrant stories to tell this single but universal tale: one of alienation, magic, and bravely bearing the wonderful and frightening strangeness of a new country. A rare and beautiful work.
by Jill S.
"Publishers Weekly Review"
by Publishers Weekly,
"With this haunting, wordless sequence about a lonely emigrant in a bewildering city, Tan (The Lost Thing) finds in the graphic novel format an ideal outlet for his sublime imagination. Via pencil illustrations that resemble sepia photographs or film cels, Tan depicts a man's poignant departure from his wife and daughter. Stark stone houses, treeless streets and rustic kitchen appliances imply past eras — the man leaves home via an outmoded locomotive and steamship — but strange visuals reveal this is not our everyday world. Shadowy dragon tails trawl the sky of the mans homeland, suggesting pogrom or famine, and when he arrives at an Ellis Island-style port (the endpapers depict passport photos of multicultural travelers), his documents are stamped with cryptic symbols. He gets aboard an unmanned hot-air balloon that delivers him to a vast metropolis with unfamiliar customs and bizarre technologies (imagine, perhaps, a Gehry-designed city). Tan offers no written explanations on this foreign space, so readers fully grasp the mans confusion when he lands a job pasting posters, then hangs them upside-down until his employer corrects him. Readers also understand his empathy for other exiles (each with their tragic stories of immigration) and with a friendly family that invites him to a meal of the local produce, which resembles exotic anemonae. In an oddly charming touch, each person has a distinctive animal companion, reminiscent of Philip Pullman's daemons or Hieronymus Bosch's alchemical creations. The man receives his own creature, a creepy-cute white monster with an egg-shaped torso, huge mouth and waving, eel-like tail; initially repulsed, he slowly warms to its amiable disposition. Just as gradually, his melancholy gives way to optimism and community as, despite setbacks, he benefits from the kindness of strangers. Tan adeptly controls the books pacing and rhythm by alternating a gridlike layout of small panels, which move the action forward, with stirring single- and double-page spreads that invite awestruck pauses. By flawlessly developing nuances of human feeling and establishing the enigmatic setting, he compassionately describes an immigrant's dilemma. Nearly all readers will be able to relate — either through personal or ancestral experience — to the difficulties of starting over, be it in another country, city, or community. And few will remain unaffected by this timeless stunner. Ages 12-up." (Oct.) Publishers Weekly (Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information, Inc.)
"Review"
by Jeff Smith, author of Bone,
"A shockingly imaginative graphic novel that captures the sense of adventure and wonder that surrounds a new arrival on the shores of a shining new city. Wordless, but with perfect narrative flow, Tan gives us a story filled with cityscapes worthy of Winsor McCay."
"Review"
by Craig Thompson, author of Blankets,
"A magical river of strangers and their stories!"
"Review"
by David Small, Caldecott Medalist,
"Magnificent."
"Synopsis"
by Libri,
In this wordless graphic novel, Tan captures the struggles and joy of the immigrant experience through clear, mesmerizing images which tell the story of a man who leaves his homeland and his family to build a better life. Young adult.
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