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The Arrival By Shaun Tan ( Arthur A. Levine Books )
Release Date: 2007-10-01
Average Customer Rating:
List Price: $19.99
Price: $13.59
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Product Description
"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." -- Jeff Smith, author of Bone
"A magical river of strangers and their stories!" -- Craig Thompson, author of Blankets
"Magnificent." -- David Small, Caldecott Medalist
In a heartbreaking parting, a man gives his wife and daughter a last kiss and boards a steamship to cross the ocean. He's embarking on the most painful yet important journey of his life - he's leaving home to build a better future for his family. Shaun Tan evokes universal aspects of an immigrant's experience through a singular work of the imagination. He does so using brilliantly clear and mesmerizing images. Because the main character can't communicate in words, the book forgoes them too. But while the reader experiences the main character's isolation, he also shares his ultimate joy.
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Wordless Delightful Fantastical Tale ( matthew10160 )
How does one best capture the experience of stepping into a new land? Of leaving everything behind? Of stepping into a new life? Of hopes? Fears? Dreams? Encounters? Especially when one has had to leave their family behind? The Arrival does just that. This is brilliantly crafted to tell a story which works on many levels (my children enjoyed this as much as I did - though we took very different things from the novel).
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My favourite book
I first found this book in a comic/anime/video game art gallery. It was so amazing that I had to buy it. I don't regret it at all. The story is so powerful, and the style in which it is told is so innovative!!! What's so cool is that anyone of any language can get through the entire book and understand it just as much as the last person. And just as the book itself says, it can be a more mature book for younger people, or it can be a more imaginative book for older ones; either way, it fits all ages.
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This book evokes the immigrant experience
The Arrival
In this wordless graphic novel, through magnificent illustrations, Tan captures the disorientation immigrants may feel toward their new surroundings. It depicts the journey of one man who seems both accepted and rejected by his new country. The only writing is in an invented alphabet, which motivates the viewer to feel confused just like the immigrants must feel when they encounter a strange new language and way of life. A feeling of tolerance and acceptance is presented throughout the story and transcends race and ethnicity. The youngest readers and the most sophisticated will find this book interesting. This book is an excellent conversation starter in any mainstream or ESL classroom.
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Incredibly thought provoking and yet serene pictorial work of art
What else can I say which isn't mentioned by others and that I've already summed it in the title of this review.
The quality of the book is fabulous...hardcover with good texture and layout. The art (computer art) is provoking and Shaun had mastered the saying "a picture tells a thousand words"
It brings the reader (viewer?) into the shoes of the immigrant visiting a "world" that is totally strange to him (as possibly depicted by the weird things he encountered) as what a stranger will feel as the reader/viewer will feel the same way too.
What more can I say, its a classic and a book worth collecting and keeping.
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FOR THE GUESTS as much as FOR THE HOSTS
If you are a "Guest":
ANYONE WHO HAD TRAVELED away from their family, culture and land, will find comfort in this book. It provides with rich metaphors and imagery of departure, culture shock, misunderstandings, confusion, adaptation--you name it!--all of those experiences an immigrant or a long-distance traveler is going through.
If you are a "Host":
Likewise, ANYONE WHO'D EVER MET A FOREIGNER, and had difficulty communicating, or had ever occupied oneself with a thought of what it means "to arrive somewhere" and what an experience of arrival to a land of no known customs and language may be like--will also benefit greatly from this presentation.
Book presentation:
The medium of the story delivery through a series of pictures (wonderful illustrations in their own right!!!) allows for multiple interpretations of the content and is adaptable to any travel/immigration situation. The story itself has depth in its many layers, depending on whose side of it you are following: the Daughter's, the Wife's, or the Man's, or perhaps--some other character in the book :-)). Detailed illustrations make me return to these pages again and again, finding some new twist, or making new interpretations.
Both, children (as young as 4) and adults I have shared this book with, loved at least something about it. Younger children, unless familiar with the experience, will probably not understand all the complexity of it, however, the very idea of presenting these experiences through pictures allows them to stay with the story and enjoy it just the same. As far as adults, I cannot think of anyone whom this book may leave untouched or indifferent.
This is by far one of the most MOVING, THOUGHT PROVOKING, INSPIRING, and beautifully done books! I never stop hunting for good volumes out there, and this one is A TREASURE for book lovers and collectors alike.
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