Books by Shaun Tan
“I think Shaun Tan is absolutely amazing. In The Lost Thing he creates a whole world, and in this case it’s a barmy world. It’s so rich in detail. There’s a sense of this being a real other world that you’re allowed to look into. It’s about a boy finding a lost creature on a beach. The boy decides to take it home. Eventually he sets it free again. A less imaginative illustrator may have made this story cute and the situation comforting. Instead, Shaun Tan gives us a massive thing that’s half sea creature, half machine. It is an imaginative book—full of energy—it is also magical, almost gothic.” Read more...
Kate Milner, Cartoonists & Illustrator
“It is one of those books that grows and grows in your mind. It stays with you long after you’ve read the last page.” Read more...
Children’s Books About the Refugee Crisis
Gill Lewis, Children's Author
Interviews where books by Shaun Tan were recommended
The best books on Third Culture Kids, recommended by Elizabeth Wein
At its core, every young adult book is about figuring out who you are and what your place in the world is, argues Elizabeth Wein, author of numerous books for children and young adults. She introduces the concept of ‘third culture kids’—children who are at home both everywhere and nowhere.
Children’s Books About the Refugee Crisis, recommended by Gill Lewis
How can parents even begin to explain the refugee crisis to children and young adults? Here, award-winning children’s author Gill Lewis shares her selection of vital primers – from simple picture books to challenging graphic novels – and discusses the role of ‘informed storytelling’ in describing this fraught and fragile human experience
Children’s Picture Books, recommended by Kate Milner
Kate Milner, winner of the prestigious Klaus Flugge Prize, discusses some of the trailblazing illustrators that have inspired her own career. She heralds artists whose imaginative works have given us some of the most exuberant storytelling for children over the last 50 years.
