He gets aboard an unmanned hot-air balloon that delivers him to a vast metropolis with unfamiliar customs and bizarre technologies (imagine, perhaps, a Gehry-designed city). Shadowy dragon tails trawl the sky of the man’s homeland, suggesting pogrom or famine, and when he arrives at an Ellis Island-style port (the endpapers depict passport photos of multicultural travelers), his documents are stamped with cryptic symbols.
Stark stone houses, treeless streets and rustic kitchen appliances imply past eras-the man leaves home via an outmoded locomotive and steamship-but strange visuals reveal this is not our everyday world. Via pencil illustrations that resemble sepia photographs or film cels, Tan depicts a man’s poignant departure from his wife and daughter. ) finds in the graphic novel format an ideal outlet for his sublime imagination. There are a few dark images in the book, so it's definitely for children old enough to have a conversation with an adult about why those images might be there.With this haunting, wordless sequence about a lonely emigrant in a bewildering city, Tan ( The Lost Thing Beautifully illustrated with black and white photo realist illustrations, and infused with surreal elements, it has a dreamlike atmosphere in which nothing is what it seems, and domestic appliances and landscapes transform themselves into strange beasts.Ĭhildren and adults of all ages will be enchanted by this moving story, which is also a wonderful starting point for exploring themes of immigration, alienation and language in the classroom.įor younger readers, this is a book that will benefit from being read together with an adult who can explain what a refugee is or what it might feel like to find oneself in an alien country without knowing the language. This classic, wordless graphic novel perfectly expresses what it means to leave your country and your family and start a new life in a new country. The story ends with his family joining him and a hopeful future ahead. We experience his journey, his struggles to communicate, find accommodation, a job and food, as well as following the stories of other immigrants. In this unusual book, we follow a young man as he packs his bags and leaves his family to go and start a new life in another country.
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