The Arrival (Shuan Tan)

Tan, Shuan. The Arrival. New York:Arthur A. Levine Books, 2007. ISBN 978-0439895293

Summary
An adventure begins when a man leaves his wife and daughter to create a new, safer life for them in a new land. Alongside the nameless main character, readers will experience the excitement, fear, and uncertainty of discovering new language, food, customs, and way of life. Both mistakes and friends are along his journey of acculturation and the books comes full circle when the immigrant and his family befriend newcomers to their land. Shuan weaves a seamless and vivid story of immigration with the pure magic of art in his wordless masterpiece.

Critical Analysis
The Arrival is a graphic novel appropriate for all audiences. Beautifully detailed drawings need no words for the observant reader to understand the difficulty and sacrifice necessary to adapt to a new, even if wonderful, world. Set in a nonexistent reality, Tan is able to relate the hardships of the main characters homeland and his need to create new opportunities for his family. The new world drawn by Tan exposes the reader to fantastical creatures, foods, and machines and explain the experience of culture shock that many immigrants experience.

The appearance of an aged scrapbook both disguise and add depth to this modern and relevant piece by Tan. His style of drawing is both fun and serious as evidenced by the magical elements and serious sepia tones.  Although many things in the book are unrelatable, such as images of flying ships, the people are very much real. Tan has created extremely relatable human images with expressions that speak volumes and encourage empathy from the reader. In the book, the main character shows his grief at being separated from his family as he gazes at a picture of his wife and daughter. The reader can clearly feel and relate to the characters emotions as is so clearly emanates from the drawing. Although greater understanding may be beyond the youngest of readers, all will appreciate and wonder at the beautiful pictures, making this graphic novel perfect for all ages.

Awards and Excerpts
ALA Notable Books
Kirkus Starred Review
YALSA Great Graphic Novels For Teens 2007
BookList- “unique work that not only fulfills but also expands the potential of its form”
School Library Journal- “[sophisticated readers] will linger over the details in the beautiful sepia pictures and will likely pick up the book to pore over it again and again”
The New York Times- “mesmerizing”
The Washington Post- “pulsing with detail”

Connections
Make connections to the main character by having students write and/or draw about their experiences being the new kid somewhere.
Suggest students read other books by Tan.
    Tan, Shaun. Lost and found. New York: Arthur A. Levine Books, 2011.ISBN 0545229243
    Tan, Shaun. Tales from outer suburbia. New York, NY: Arthur A. Levine Books, 2009.ISBN
         9780545055871

Suggest these works by other popular author/illustrators.
    Allsburg, Chris. The mysteries of Harris Burdick. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1984. ISBN
         0395353939
    Allsburg, Chris. The stranger. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1986. ISBN 0395423317
    Allsburg, Chris. The wreck of the Zephyr. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1983. ISBN 0395330750
    Selznick, Brian. The invention of Hugo Cabret : a novel in words and pictures. New York:
         Scholastic Press, 2007.ISBN 0439813786
    Selznick, Brian. Wonderstruck : a novel in words and pictures. New York:Scholastic, 2011. ISBN
         0545027896
    Yang, Gene. American born Chinese. New York: First Second, 2006. ISBN1596431520

Use novels discussing assimilation to follow up The Arrival.
    Alvarez, Julia. How the García girls lost their accents. Chapel Hill, N.C: Algonquin Books of
         Chapel Hill, 2010. ISBN 156512975X
    Alvarez, Julia. Return to sender. New York: Yearling, 2010.ISBN 0375851232