The Arrival

Book: The Arrival
Author: Shaun Tan
Audience: Ages 10 to adult (seriously!)
In a Nutshell: wordless tale of immigration, only with crazy critters and surreal scenery

I don't know where I first read about The Arrival, but whoever it was, they were really psyched about this Australian book's American release. And whoever you were, you were right. Done in sepia tones in the style of a faded, aging scrapbook, the masterful appeal of this graphic novel defies easy description; you just need to pick it up and see for yourself. The story is an old one: a man leaves his wife and daughter to emigrate to a strange country, where he hopes to earn enough money to bring his family over and start a new life. The reasons for leaving are vague but sinister: huge shadows from spiky tails, tentacles, or worse are cast over everything. The written language in his new country is unfamiliar to the man, and to the reader, and the feeling of incomprehension and confusion comes through amazingly well.

The man meets people along the way who help him, and tell him their stories of how they came to live there. The first friend he makes is actually a little creature that makes himself right at home as a loyal pet. The presence of fantastical creatures and the very surreal, stylized, larger-than-life look of the city and countryside are brilliant ways to jolt us jaded modern people into the sense of wonder and intimidation that newcomers anywhere have felt for centuries, especially entering huge, New York-esque cities.

Even though it's wordless, resist the urge to flip through quickly. The longer you spend on each finely detailed page, the more you'll see. Considering this book, Printz Award-winning American Born Chinese, and National Book Award finalist The Invention of Hugo Cabret, graphic novels as a mainstream literary art form have taken some serious steps forward in the past year or two.