thearrival

Judge A Book By Its Cover

Book Reviews and Synopses

The Arrival

Shaun Tan

Tan, Shaun. The Arrival. Scholastic. New York. 2006.

The Arrival is about a man who works as a newspaper owner in Times Square. The Arrival slowly gets boring and half way through the book, but it is still a really good book. This book is so short, it is not hard to finish.

The Arrival starts out talking about how one day, a man was on his way home from work while taking a detour through an alleyway, stumbles across an interesting animal. He spends time with the animal and tries to decided what to do with it. This part of the book was very well written and makes the reader feel as if they were in the book witnessing what was going on. The animal he found was white and had a long thick tail, with big round ears and four little stubby legs. Its tongue was long and as thin as a tooth pick. The little animal shuffled up to the man and started squealing. The man did not know what to do. He took out his briefcase and gave the animal a piece of his leftover sandwich. After a while of thinking about it, the man decided to take the animal home to find out what species it was.

The man and animal become great friends. They go on fun adventures and have a great time together. This part of The Arrival was very interesting but slow. After spending time with the strange animal, the man decides to write about the strange thing. And after awhile of convincing the newspaper publishers that it was a true story, he gets a job as a professional newspaper writer. Everyone who read the article was hassling the man. They all wanted to know where the animal came from, but not even the man knows. He just found the poor thing in an alleyway.

In the end of The Arrival, the man and animal end up leaving town to a faraway island, because the man doesn’t want to give the poor animal a life full of people surrounding him and acting like he was a 24 hour show.

The Arrival was very well written, but slow at some points. There were many photos in this book to help you see what was going on and understanding the book more clearly. The way Shaun Tan wrote the book was a little confusing but, overall, the book was a good read. It is suggested to ages 9 and up.

Contributed by Phoebe B.

May 16, 2012

3.5 out of 5 stars