30. The Arrival

The Arrival by Shaun Tan (Arthur A. Levine) 2006

Genre

Graphic Novel

Honors

Book Sense Book of the Year, 2008, nominee
Garden State Teen Book Award, 2010, nominee
Publishers Weekly Best Children's Books, 2007, winner
Boston Globe-Horn Book Awards, 2008, winne
Locus Awards, 2008, winner
Hugo Awards, 2008, nominee
School Library Journal Best Books of the Year, 2007, winner 
American Library Association Notable Books for Children, 2008, winner 
Children's Book Council of Australia Children's Book of the Year Award, 2007, winner
Virginia Reader's Choice Awards, 2008, nominee
Western Australian Premier's Book Awards, 2006, winner

Review

Tan wordlessly recounts the experience of an immigrant who leaves his wife and daughter behind to seek a better life, raise money, and send after them.  Darkness and tales of war seem to linger over every immigrant that the protagonist meets.  The book feels suggestive of fleeing WWII Europe (the point of entry into Tan's new country feels reminiscent of Ellis Island), but is far more generalizable than that as it has no identifiable references to a specific war.

Opinion

The use of indecipherable symbols and the strangeness of the landscape and animals ensure that the book would put any reader into the shoes of an immigrant who does not know the custom or language in a new land.  The work reminded me of Lynd Ward and Hope Larson -- with the grandeur of wordless storytelling that Ward employs and the abstract unfamiliarity of Larson.  Like both of these other artists, Tan tells a complex story through pictures alone: a rather notable feat.

Ideas

The book would be ideal for helping students understand the feeling of immigration.  An event promoting multiculturalism or on immigration/emigration would benefit from inclusion of the book.