Thanks to Zoe Toft at Playing by the Book for alerting me to this video of Shaun Tan’s award winning bookThe Arrival set to a musical score on the Sydney Opera House’s website.
Watch highlights of Shaun Tan’s visual masterpiece The Arrival featuring a live score by Ben Walsh and The Orkestra of the Underground.
The Arrival is a migrant story told as a series of wordless images. With his Orkestra of the Underground, Ben Walsh pooled a diverse range of musical talent and composed a score to accompany Tan’s beautiful illustrations in a rare and unique audio-visual experience.
On Wednesday, Older Brother, Little Brother and I had the thrill of hearing this year’s Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award winner Shaun Tan speak at Seven Stories in Newcastle, during his whistle-stop visit to the UK. I’ve loved his work since being mesmerised by The Arrival four years ago; and we’ve also had the privilege of featuring Shaun’s work in our PaperTigers Gallery. Shaun’s picture books truly tap into something essential in our existence so that no matter how old you are and whatever your life experience, there is something there for everyone to absorb and distill. His books have had a big impact on the boys too, and it was a real eye-opener for them to meet their creator and hear about the drawn out process and sheer hard work that goes into producing a book. Now we are all desperate to see the Oscar-winning short of The Lost Thing!
Older Brother was most struck by Shaun saying that imperfection was a “very important concept for an artist”; and that he is always aiming for simplicity, because it’s through that apparent simplicity that he can achieve layer upon layer of meaning. Then accompanying the text with unexpected illustrations to create further tensions – but he pointed out that he wouldn’t call his work surreal per se: rather, the unexpected juxtaposition of familiar objects in his work is what is surreal.
Little Brother especially loved the first in Shaun’s series of cartoons depicting a day in his life: Waking to the Sound of a Solitary Cicada – a huge cicada looming in through the open window. He’s still laughing about that (but, as is so often the case with Shaun’s work, for me, the more I think about it, the more the funniness is tempered with a feeling of unease…). Little Brother also came home thinking about the humor and tensions achieved by people/creatures doing extrordinary things as though they are completely normal – like feeding Christmas decorations to a huge, friendly monster-machine aka the Lost Thing. And when Shaun pointed out that, as per the element of the familiar present in all his creations, the Lost Thing is a cross between a dog, a horse and an elephant, yes, you can absolutely see it.
With thanks to Fiction is like a box of chocolates for highlighting this. I do so agree with what they say: “Some people have a talent, but few are as multi-talented and original as Shaun Tan.” After The Arrivaland now Tales from Outer Suburbia, what will he take our breath away with next?
The Children’s Book Council of Australia (CBCA) is proud to sponsor the longest running children’s festival in Australia: Children’s Book Week. Celebrating its 63rd birthday this year, Children’s Book Week will take place August 16th -22nd with the theme “Fuel your Mind”. Schools and public libraries from all over Australia will spend the week celebrating books and Australian authors and illustrators. Classroom teachers, teacher librarians and public librarians will offer a plethora of activities: author and illustrator visits, workshops, theatre acts, competitions, and storytelling relating to the theme in an effort to highlight the importance of reading.
CBCA is a volunteer run, not-for-profit organization comprised of individual members who are passionate about children’s and young adult literature. To help promote Children’s Book Week as well as their Book of the Year Awards, they offer a range of merchandise that can be purchased to decorate schools and classrooms for Book Week. This year Australian author and illustrator Shaun Tan, winner of the 2007 CBCA Picture Book of the Year Award for his book The Arrival, has designed the vibrant, eye-catching posters.
On Friday, August 15th, as a kick-start to Children’s Book Week, the CBCA will announce and present their 2008 Book of the Year awards in the following categories: Older Readers, Younger Readers, Early Childhood, Picture Book, and the Eve Pownall Award for Information Books. The shortlists for these awards were announced in April and at the same time the unique CBCA Junior Judges’ Project (JJP) was launched. The CBCA Junior Judges’ Project encourages children to do their own judging of the shortlisted books in the annual CBCA Book Awards, based on similiar criteria to those used by the CBCA Book of the Year judges. Once the Short List is announced, students guided by their teachers are encouraged to read the shortlisted books and, based on the judging criteria, select their Winner and two Honour Books in one or more categories and cast their votes online, either through their teachers or individually.
This year I gave my son a picture book for Christmas–nothing earthshaking about that until you consider that my son is in his early thirties and graduated from pictures to the printed word several decades ago. The book is one that my neighborhood bookstore has been selling to adults ever since it came to their shelves, and when I opened it I knew I had to give it to someone I loved. The book is Shaun Tan’s gorgeous book without words, The Arrival, and it is one that is featured on the PaperTigers gallery.
I have given picture books to adults for years, ever since I first began my life as a bookseller, and the illustrators that I yearn to give and to own are most often from Australia, a corner of the world that is covered quite wonderfully on PaperTigers by Charlotte.
Just before I moved from the arena of children’s books to a life in SE Asia, a book came to me from Australia that has haunted my imagination ever since I opened it. It is a perfect example of how words and pictures magically combine to create a book that lives forever in the hearts and minds of readers — The Wolf by Margaret Barbalet, illustrated by Jane Tanner (Maxwell Macmillan, 1991). No other book that I have found illustrates so vividly the crippling effects of fearing the unknown, and how facing that fear can turn it into something wonderful. Each picture is a painting, showing a family whose lives become imprisoned by their fear of the wolf who comes closer and closer to their house at night. When it is finally confronted by one of the children, it is revealed as a friendly, lonely creature who only wants shelter and love. Author and illustrator have blended their artistry to create a masterpiece that resonates to all age groups, on many different levels of understanding. If I could, I would give it to everyone I know.
And now — a plea for help — at the same time that The Wolf came into my life, another picture book from Australia also arrived in my workplace and I can no longer remember the title, author, or illustrator. The book however has proved to be unforgettable. It is the story of children playing an imaginary game in the backyard — the text shows the fantasy that the children have created while the full-page pictures show the reality of the game — the garbage can lids that are their shields and their dog who is the prey that they seek. It’s a brilliant depiction of the world of the imagination and I would love to find it again. Is there anybody out there who can steer me toward it?
As we come to the end of another year (already?!?), all children’s/ya book blogging eyes will be upon the Cybils 2007 finalists lists, which are due out on January 1st and 7th… what a great way to celebrate all that’s been happening in 2007 and bridge to all we have to look forward to in 2008.
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie – well, we’ll be featuring a review in our next update – I’ll put in the link when it’s available…
So now we wait with baited breath… We were a bit slow on the uptake with our own nominations for the Cybils this year but next year we’ll definitely be jumping on the band-wagon too – though choosing which books to nominate will likely be a struggle!
Before I sign off for this year, I just want to point you in the direction of Jen Robinson’s latest Literacy Round-Up – she highlights some wonderful initiatives in promoting literacy and reading aloud to small children, as well as providing much pause for thought, including Daphne Lee’s article about plans to label books in the UK with recommended age ranges… being based in the UK myself, I can see myself entering the fray there!
So, to all those of you who have supported us since the start of our PaperTigers blog in May this year, and to all those of you who have dropped in since (and maybe this is your first time), we wish you a Very Happy and Book-filled 2008!
Today’s bits may not be news for some of you anymore, but here they go, in true December-mode (i.e. scrambling to get things done and running behind on almost everything there’s to run behind on):
Lights have shined on Kashmira Sheth‘s Keeping Corner, which got a starred review from Kirkus, and Linda Sue Park’s Tap Dancing on The Roof: Sijo Poems, which made the Hornbook Fanfare list in the Poetry category. In this year’s Fanfare we find Tap Dancing on the Roof in the very good company of the likes of National Book Award winner The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian (YA fiction) and The Arrival (Picture Book), to mention just two of the many great books that made the prestigious list.
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On a “coming up soon” note, Mitali Perkin’s First Daughter: White House Rules, the follow-up novel to First Daughter: Extreme American Makeover is coming out in Jan 24 from Dutton/Penguin. Hurray for Sameera! It will be nice to catch up with her, as she continues to learn to march to the beat of her own drum. A review will be posted to the PaperTigers website soon (and, no, Mitali, the fact that we haven’t reviewed it yet is not a matter of sequel review syndrome, but most likely of “end of the year chaos” syndrome!)
And last but not least on today’s set of “sparklers”… Happy second anniversary to Jen Robinson’s Book Page! May her blog continue to inform and enlighten us all for many years to come!
At Insideadog, the Australian website of the Centre for Youth Literature, State Library Victoria (Australia), voting is underway for the Inkys awards for best Australian and international books of the year. The site, designed especially for young readers, solicits voting from 12-18-year-olds. Shaun Tan‘s The Arrival is shortlisted for Golden Inky (best YA Australian book) and Looking for Alaska by John Green for the international Silver Inky award. Every week until the contest ends November 9, kids can click “Win Stuff” and answer an opinion question to enter a drawing for one of the shortlisted books. There are lots of other goodies at Insideadog, including guest authors who blog for a month, teen book reviews and discussions, and more book giveaways, plus audio downloads and first chapters to read online. Check it out and send the link to a Australian teen bibliophile!
Annie Donwerth Chikamatsu of Here and There Japan reports on a similar (and different) process for the Sakura Medal Awards. Her report for the SCWBI Tokyo newsletter (scroll down to page 11) provides more details about this great Japanese students’ choice award.
The fourth grade classroom of Educating Alice‘s Monica Edinger sure is lucky to have such an inspiring and committed teacher. Immigration is their year’s theme, so she is working with students on different projects using Shaun Tan‘s magnificent, wordless book The Arrival. She has been documenting the experience on Educating Alice and her classblog, featuring comments, podcasts, and photos.
Enjoy, vicariously, the loads of learning and fun they are concocting, or get ideas for how to use the book in your own classroom. They will be working with The Arrival for at least another week, so make sure to check her “In the Classroom” updates.
Book of the Month is Paul Yee‘sWhat Happened This Summer, a rich collection of short stories about different teenagers growing up in Toronto, with a focus on their Chinese Canadian backgrounds. If you’re looking for inspiration about which book to read next, try our Reviews section; and take a look at those mentioned by writers Susanne Gervay in her Personal View YA Books: Cutting Edge Literature and Mitali Perkins in hers, Teens Between Cultures: A Reading List.
I have also picked out a short list of only some of the wonderful YA books we have featured on PaperTigers: Open up and get reading: YA books you just can’t put down and I hope you will add some of your own suggestions – we would love to hear from you.
On Wednesday, Older Brother, Little Brother and I had the thrill of hearing this year’s 
