The Arrival by Shaun Tan

What could this funny little creature be on the front cover of this book? That was the thing that captured my attention right away. And as I flipped through the pictures I found many other wild beings throughout.

The beginning of the story was very simple. You see a man packing his bags and having to leave his wife and little girl to go off to somewhere new. After this I started to get confused. All kinds of big creatures started showing up and other things that I have never even imagined before. After going through the whole book I couldn't put together what the story was actually tryiing to tell me. I had to go and look up a summary of it online and after doing that I went back to the book and it made a little more sense.

The book is about a man who leaves his family and is an immigrant in a new land. The creatures represent the dark things that he goes through while being so far away from his family. He also meets a new friend along the way though.

I don't know if I needed to step outside the box a little more to figure out what this book was telling me or if I just needed more background knowledge. But because this was a wordless book it made it very difficult for me to read. I would say this book would be good for junior high children and older as long as they are able to really use their imaginations. So if you want a book with terrific pictures that pretty much just come out of the page then pick up The Arrival by Shaun Tan.