The Arrival Hardcover – Illustrated, October 1, 2007

I first saw this book as part of an exhibit at the George Eastman Museum in Rochester, NY. I'm not really sure why it was there - it was sitting on a bench in one of the galleries. I leafed through it briefly - the illustrations are so beautiful that I bought two - one for me, one as a gift.It's possible to just thumb through the book and appreciate the illustrations - but it's definitely worthwhile to start at the beginning and follow the story. I may buy more to give as gifts in the future.

This book is incredible. Love the drawing and the story in the book. Would recommend to anyone from kids to the seniors.Paper quality is also perfect.

It’s always difficult living in a rougher country that has stricter rules. To make this book easier and more powerful to grasp, the ‘author’ and illustrator, Shaun Tan has decided to show the stages and events of his past through only showing self-made pictures intwined with his imagination.

This is a wordless book, the author telling the story with his beautiful artwork. But this is not specifically a children’s book, though they may also enjoy it. The illustrations convey the confusion that often assaults the senses of a new immigrant. The lack of any written explanation reinforces the isolation felt by many who lack the conversational and written language skills needed in the host country. As the main character tries to adjust to his new environment, he meets others who help him along the way, sharing their immigrant stories. Ultimately he is able to send for his family and help them make their adjustments, and the story comes full circle.Because there are no written explanations, the author allows the reader to enter into the story at his level of comfort. The book can be read quickly at a fairly superficial level, or more slowly, pondering the situations and symbolism presented.I bought this book for my son who is an artist and animator. He responded that he is enjoyed and appreciated this unique method of communication.

"The Arrival" is a genre-connecting hardback picture book that took Shaun Tan four years to create based on narratives of immigrants coming to the U.S., combined with visual references he studied from antique post cards, historical photographs and even paintings and etchings by earlier artists.This is a very, very carefully designed work that may remind readers of the stunning experience the first time you read "Maus: A Survivor's Tale," the famous graphic novel about the Holocaust by Art Spiegelman. (In fact, Spiegelman's praise for "The Arrival" appears on the back cover of the book, calling this "something new and exceptionally worthy.")"The Arrival" tells the story of a young father who leaves his wife and daughter behind in their impoverished and dangerous homeland to journey to a distant city based on the New York City of an earlier era. Like millions of immigrants over the past two centuries, he is the patriarch of a family bravely going on ahead to establish a home for his family in a new world.Many of the beautifully rendered images in the book are straight out of Ellis Island historical materials. HOWEVER, the stunning innovation Tan adds to the story is the way he moves from those historical snapshots of the immigrant experience -- to a wildly off-kilter New York City in which the Statue of Liberty looks oddly like a pair of welcoming giants in exotic costumes. New York's pigeons become strangely beautiful flying fish. The English language of advertisements, newspaper headlines and grocery store packaging becomes a bizarrely cryptic new alphabet that we can't quite understand.Common American foods take on exotic, fanciful shapes and textures. Even ordinary American pets become exotic animals that seem to have fallen to earth from a science fiction novel.Are you glimpsing the point of this visual slight of hand? As we follow the story of this immigrant -- we SEE America through the eyes of an immigrant. The strangeness of our skylines, our symbols, our language, our foods, our pets, our architecture -- actually looks strange to us, as readers.This is what makes this book ideal for reading over and over with young readers -- spotting the dozens of subtle ways Tan twists and turns elements of the tale to help us not only empathize with the immigrant and his family -- but to actually feel his disorientation as we read the book!Some chapters of the book are very dark. As immigrants meet in this new land, across the cultural and religious chasms that may separate them, they share stories of danger and oppression in their homelands. One immigrant tells a horrifying story of a war that left him crippled and homeless. Another immigrant tells a tale of what seems to be ethnic cleansing in his homeland.Once again, Tan's imagery is rooted in stories we know -- but he enlarges and re-imagines the visual grammar of these stories until the ethnic cleansing becomes a terrifying tale of gigantic, faceless technicians with flame throwers who tromp through the streets of a village.Although the story becomes dark at several points, there is nothing in the book that is more troubling than scenes in "The Chronicles of Narnia." And each moment of darkness throws into dramatic relief a moment of great joy as the immigrants realize how much they are thankful for in their new community. There's even a strange kind of Thanksgiving dinner at one point in the book.Wherever you live in the world, as you read this, "The Arrival" is the story of someone you know -- a friend, a neighbor, a relative -- or perhaps this is your story captured vividly in a new form for a new century.

Second time that I have purchased this book. This is to be given to a young girl who is Dyslexic as the story told in wordless pictures of a person moving to a country where they do not know the language or how to read said language reflects to a degree the struggle they themselves endure with reading. This is to try to show that books are not the enemy and that there are more than one way to "read".

The illustrations did not disappoint. The story is not really one created for children, although the extensions beyond reality using children's 'props may make it appear so. There is subtlety and complexity in the development of the theme that go beyond thelevel of the average child's ability to perceive. There is nothing simple about either of the books I have by Shaun Tan. This is a four star rating because, while I think it a great piece of art, I do not LOVE it…my particular personal preference.