The Arrival 
is a heart-warming story about a family of three and… a threat.
When the threat begins to take over the whole town, the father must find a new home for himself and his family. He travels over to a new country which is very strange and different to his old home.
After around a month, the man writes a letter back to his wife and daughter to tell them he will send money when he gets a job.
Two years pass and the family still haven’t reunited! Will they ever meet again?…
This is a great book for any age. I recommend that you discuss the pictures on each page as it really helps you to understand the storyline. I enjoyed this book because the idea of just pictures is fantastic – something really different to books I’ve read before. Also, the illustrations were very well drawn. The book is successful because it has a very strong message about working together with your neighbours – something that made me feel very positive. The author set out to help readers understand what life might be like moving countries and I definitely think he did this: his descriptions of the new country particularly helped this. I would love to be able to read more of Shaun Tan’s books, particularly those that just have pictures.
Thank you for your really thoughtful review and I’m glad you enjoyed the book. Although I do think this is my favourite Shaun Tan book, he has written some other great books and his artwork is amazing. There are several books by other authors that he has illustrated too (e.g. Memorial which was written by Gary Crew. This is about remembering the messages from WW1 so maybe 2018 is a good time to look at it…)