Author's website
Adaptations
Stage
- The Arrival Sydney Festival 2010 - Based on Shaun Tan's award-winning book by the same name, this wondrous wordless stage production questions why so many people leave behind everything they know to journey to an unknown land. The Arrival's highly physical cast combine music, movement, puppetry and shadow play to weave a story about overcoming hardship, about humanity and hope, and is a tribute to migrants and refugees throughout the world. [Preview on YouTube - 2:27]
Opera
Oscars - The Lost Thing
- 'The Lost thing wins the Oscar® for best animated short film' 2011, Screen Australia: Media Release
Astrid Lindgren Memorial Prize - The Lost Thing
Hot on the heels of his win at the Oscars for The Lost Thing, it has been announced Shaun Tan has just won the most prestigious children's book award, the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Prize.
The Astrid Lindgren Memorial Prize attracts the largest monetary award in the field of children's literature and the official site, when announcing the award noted:
'Shaun Tan is a masterly visual story teller, pointing the way ahead to new possibilities for picture books. His pictorial worlds constitute a separate universe where nothing is self-evident and anything is possible. Memories of childhood and adolescence are fixed reference points, but the pictorial narrative is universal and touches everyone, regardless of age.'
The book section of The Guardian Newspaper has more information about Shaun Tan and this prize. They also have an online gallery of Eric from Tales of Outer Suburbia Take the time to be delighted by this charming story which is so very typical of Shaun Tan's apparently simple story-telling which is always packed with delight, great-depth and meaning.
Interviews
General
Cicada
General
The Arrival
Tales from the Inner City
Reviews
The Arrival
- Barsumian, Aram, 2009, 'The Arrival: a digital review' YouTube, 9 December. Shaun Tan has described this review as "brilliant". Signed by a deaf reviewer Tan said for him it showed the parallels between the immigration experience and being disabled.
- Schiavone, Angie, 2006, 'The Arrival',Sydney Morning Herald, 9 November.
- Yang, Gene Leun, 2007, 'Stranger in a strange land', The New York Times, 11 November
Cicada
- Crocombe, Angela, 2018, 'Cicada by Shaun Tan', Readings, 25 June
- Nichols, Claire, 2018, 'Shaun Tan's Cicada', RN: The Hub on Books, 17 July. [Audio download: 14:23]
- 'Shaun Tan's Cicada: a meditation on belonging and bullying in pictures' 2018, The Guardian, 25 June. This article includes the models Tan made of the characters and scenes that later appear as illustrations in this book.
Tales from the Inner City
Tales from Outer Suburbia
- Lo, Ping, 2008, 'Tales from Outer Suburbia', ABC Canberra, 23 June
- Said, SF, 2009, ' Beyond the lawn: gorgeous artwork brings Shaun Tan's outlandish stories to life', The Guardian, 2 May
- Schiavone, Angie, 2008, 'Tales from Outer Suburbia', Sydney Morning Herald, 17 June.
The Singing bones
Teachers' guides
Cicada
- Sheahen-Bright, Robyn, 2018, 'Cicada', Hachette, [PDF - 26 pages]
The Lost Thing
Rules of summer