The Arrival

Shaun Tan (Illus)

Lothian Books, Australia: 2006

ISBN: 0734406940

Note: extension concepts

Genres: graphic novel, picture book

Issues: cultural differences, isolation, migration, refugee

CBCA Picture Book of the Year, 2007

This truly remarkable and very moving graphic novel took Tan four years to create, unsurprising given that it contains more than eight hundred and fifty pictures.

Relying entirely on these finely drawn images - there is no text - Tan tells the universal story of migration: the dreadful pressures and fears that are so often the factors that drive people away from their place of birth and the many shocks and trials they face in their new land. Tan starts the story with a father, forced to leave his wife and daughter behind while he attempts to make a living in a large, busy, unknown city of strange customs, language and food.

Tan's slightly surreal buildings, animals and plants subtly emphasise how alien a foreign culture can seem, especially at a time of great stress. Gradually the father meets others who help him, some of whom have themselves endured the migration experience and understand the sense of displacement. Their stories fill the pages with images of remembered fears - cruelty, dictators, disaster and escape - but all end with the reassurance of finding a place of safety and belonging: their new home. The father is encouraged and persists, eventually earning enough to allow his wife and daughter to rejoin him.

Tan is a gifted artist and the range of emotion with which he manages to imbue his images is astonishing. More than that, the sequencing of the illustrations is reminiscent of highly sophisticated story-boarding in pre-animation - he was apparently working with animators on another project at the time and this undoubtedly influenced The Arrival's visual structure. The links between each section are very smooth, almost cinematic. He gives a static experience - a book - movement and energy by using film techniques such as zooming in or out on one feature over a series of pictures.

Full or double page illustrations are comparatively rare, usually serving as a context for clusters of smaller, sequenced images. Groups of seven to twelve ‘snapshots' allow multiple ‘angles' on a complex experience such as being sorted through the arrivals hall. As a result, the reader becomes much more involved with the characters, is able to empathise more deeply with their reactions. The interaction with the visual text is more complex than would be likely if this were a standard picture book.

Tan has created an astonishingly powerful, moving and thought-provoking work that should encourage readers of all ages to be more sensitive to those who are strangers in a new country. Bound and presented to look like an old-fashioned family photo album, The Arrival emphasises that we are all of migrant stock.

Check Shaun Tan's website for an article about the process - artistic and intellectual - of creating this remarkable work. (www.shauntan.net)