SuitabookThe Arrival
Shaun Tan
- Reading
- Look through it slowly rather than reading it aloud as a conventional book. Invite the child to narrate panels, revisit recurring images and discuss alternative interpretations; pause around frightening war imagery and explain unfamiliar historical or migration terms if needed.
- Themes
- Migration and belonging: A man leaves an unsafe home, enters an unfamiliar country and gradually finds work, accommodation, friends and family reunion. The narrative presents perseverance, mutual aid and rebuilding a life as meaningful responses to displacement.
- Wordless visual storytelling: The story uses sepia panels, invented writing, fantastical settings and recurring visual imagery instead of dialogue or conventional text. The form makes confusion and discovery experiential, while requiring readers to infer connections and emotional meaning from images.
- War, fear and refuge: The character’s home has become dangerous, and other displaced people describe escape from oppression, slavery, war and fear. The book’s stance on this remains unclear.
- Worth knowing
- Some images may be unsettling: a threatening home, war-related scenes, skeletons, an amputee, shattered homes and people fleeing monsters. The protagonist also experiences confusion, isolation and difficulty navigating an unfamiliar place.