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Tales From Outer Suburbia
by: Shaun Tan

List Price: $19.99

Amazon.com's Price: $13.59

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Availability: Not yet published
Binding: Hardcover
EAN: 9780545055871
ISBN: 0545055873
Label: Arthur A. Levine Books
Manufacturer: Arthur A. Levine Books
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 96
Publication Date: February 01, 2009
Publisher: Arthur A. Levine Books
Reading Level: Ages 4-8
Sales Rank: 155221
Studio: Arthur A. Levine Books

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Editorial Review:

Product Description:
An exchange student who's really an alien, a secret room that becomes the perfect place for a quick escape, a typical tale of grandfatherly exaggeration that is actually even more bizarre than he says... These are the odd details of everyday life that grow and take on an incredible life of their own in tales and illustrations that Shaun Tan's many fans will love.

Customer Reviews

Average Rating: out of 5 stars

Rating:

- Fanciful Fiction
This is an interesting book, to say the least. It says it's for kids 12 and older, and I would agree. Younger children would probably find it... a bit confusing.

There are a number of short stories, some as short as a page. The illustrations are pretty cool, and there are a lot of them. A couple of the stories have quite a few pages of drawings to go with the short text. They help to flesh out the story more visually.

When I said some may find them confusing, I mean that the author doesn't really end the stories. They are mostly open ended, making the reader ask some questions, and continue the story in their own mind and imagination. This isn't a bad thing at all, it's a good way to get kids to stretch their minds a bit. But for some with extremely short attention spans, or too young, it can be a little trying.

One of my favorites was about what happens to poetry that no one ... Read More

Rating:

- Something Rich and Strange
Lewis Carroll, Neil Gaiman, Jerry Spinelli, Tim Burton, Maurice Sendak, Rene Magritte, and Rainer Maria Rilke should have influenced this book, even if they didn't.

Shaun Tan's stories remind me of a set of Zen kôans. Or maybe they're like dreams, their patterned and illogical meanings making sense only in the deceptively real moments that they are experienced.

I knew Tan was a wildly imaginative artist, but I was wondering how he would handle the language of story telling. The answer is that, as in Brian Selznick's The Invention of Hugo Cabret, the art and text for Tales from Outer Suburbia are relentlessly intertwined.

I feel like giving those kitschy high school yearbook awards to the stories: Most Wistful ("Eric"), Best Use of Black and White ("Grandpa's Story"), Class Clown ("Our Expedition"), Eeriest ("Stick Figures"), Most Pacific ("Alert But Not Alarmed"), Most Likely ... Read More

Rating:

- More than a little surreal, altogether wonderful
I'd never heard of Shaun Tan before I read this. I'd heard of what's arguably his most famous graphic novel, The Arrival, but I didn't know that was by him, and I didn't know who he was. As such, I came into this book with very little notion of what it was or what it would be about.

And I loved it. Every page. Well, except for two pages - there's one story about saving turtles that just doesn't seem to have anything to do with the book's overall theme of surreal suburbia.

The drawings are fantastic, the text is wonderful and the authors clear sense of joy and wonder at creating all of these odd little worlds is obvious. Taken one step too far, this would be a dreadful and ponderous "post-modern tour de force." Taken one step too near and it would be trite, predictable children's fantasy. As it stands, it's just in the right place.

I'd recommend this book for just about anyone ... Read More

Rating:

- Fantastic Tales...

...in every sense of the word.

This collection of illustrated short tales (sometimes very short) is difficult to describe. I imagine these are the types of stories you'd hear at a neighborhood block party...if you neighborhood were slighty off the beaten path.

A wise water buffalo that lives in a vacant lot...
A tiny exchange student that collects random everyday objects that interest him...
An animal abuser's house that burns down while the neighborhood dogs watch...
Two brothers who trek to find the edge of a road map in the real world...

These are some of the intriguing stories to be read and seen. While the stories are often curious and seemingly nonsensical (visit the author's site for comments on the tales), I have to say it's the illustrations that really breathe extrordinary life into them.

"Distant Rain" is a prime example. It's about ... Read More

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