CMIS Evaluation Fiction Focus

With Tales from Outer Suburbia, Shaun Tan has proven what we have long suspected: that his talent is not confined to illustration. He is as adept with words as he is with images.

Shaun Tan has developed an international reputation as an outstanding and original illustrator. He was born in Fremantle in 1974 and currently lives and works in Melbourne. As a child Shaun enjoyed reading; writing and illustrating poems and stories; and spent a lot of time drawing dinosaurs, robots and space ships. He participated in a special art program at secondary school but since then he has largely taught himself the art of book illustration. At the University of WA  he completed an honours degree in English literature and art history, theory and criticism.

In 1992 Shaun won the International Illustrators of the Future Contest, the first Australian to achieve this award. He has been illustrating young adult fiction and picture books since 1996.

Since winning the 2002 NSW Premier’s Prize for Children’s Books with The Red Tree Shaun Tan has been featured on the 7:30 Report on the ABC and in the Weekend Australian Magazine (June 22-23, 2002), rare publicity for a children’s illustrator or author. From CMIS Author page.

The title Tales from Outer Suburbia appears to be a homage to a much-loved Western Australian collection of short stories, Tom Hungerford’s Stories from Suburban Road. Certainly many of the images in the book are familiar to those who know Perth’s suburbs.

Shaun talks about Tales from Outer Suburbia:

Dig Deeper

The author

Shaun Tan’s website

Interviews and speeches

• Interview on the ABC Articulate blog
• Interview – Australian Edge blog
• Panel Borders : The Art of Shaun Tan - Interview on Resonance FM, London
• Radio National Book Show – transcript only
  
• 2009 Colin Simpson Memorial Lecture
• HSC Online – Shaun Tan reveals how he became an illustrator, describes his process and influences and reflects on the distinction between commercial and fine art.

The Text

• Extract (PDF)
• Slide show from New York Entertainment

Reviews

• CMIS
  
• The Guardian
• The Australian
• Sydney Morning Herald
• School Library Journal
• Teacher reviews from the Allen & Unwin website

Awards for Tales from Outer Suburbia

• Winner of the 2008 Aurealis Award for Best Illustrated Book/Graphic Novel
• Winner of the 2009 Ditmar Award for Best Artwork
• Winner ABIA Illustrated Book of the Year 2009
• Winner 2009 Children’s Book Council of Australia Book of the Year – Older Readers
• Category Winner in the 2008 Indie Awards – Children’s Book
• Shortlisted for the 2008 Golden Inky Award
• Shortlisted for the 2009 NSW Premier’s Literary Awards, Patricia Wrightson Prize for Children’s Literature

Awards and accolades for Shaun Tan

• Winner 1992 International Illustrators of the Future Contest
• Nominated 2010 Astrid Lindgren Award

Picture Books illustrated by Shaun Tan

• The Viewer, written by Gary Crew, 1997 – Winner, Crichton Award, 1998; Notable Book, CBCA Picture Book of the Year, 1998
• The Rabbits, written by John Marsden, 1998 – Aurealis Conveners’ Award for Excellence, 1999;  Winner, CBCA Picture Book of the Year, 1999; Spectrum Gold Award for Book Illustration, 1999
• Memorial, written by Gary Crew, 1999; Honour Book, CBCA Picture Book of the Year, 2000

Picture Books written and illustrated by Shaun Tan

• The Lost Thing, 1999 – Honour Book, CBCA Picture Book of the Year, 2000; Shortlisted, Young Adult, WA Premier’s Book Awards, 1999
• The Red Tree, 2001 – Winner, Patricia Wrightson Award, NSW Premier’s Literary Awards; Honour Book, CBCA Picture Book of the Year, 2002; Shortlisted, Children’s Books, WA Premier’s Book Awards, 2001
• The Arrival, 2006 – multiple awards including Winner, Golden Aurealis Award for Best Short Story, 2006; Winner, Aurealis Award for Best Young Adult Short Story, 2006

Adaptations of Shaun Tan’s works

• The Red Tree, a play based on Tan’s book of the same name, was commissioned for the Out of the Box Festival of Early Childhood in 2004.
• The Australian Chamber Orchestra commissioned music in 2008 for The Red Tree, which was performed by Gondwana Voices. The site contains a podcast introduction and video.
• The Lost Thing is being adapted as an animated short film by Passion Pictures (UK).
• Sydney band Lo-Tel was inspired by the artwork from The Lost Thing to record an album of the same name, incorporating the art into the cover design.
• The Lost Thing has also been adapted as a play by the Jigsaw Theatre Company, in Canberra as the main event for the National Gallery of Australia’s Children Festival in 2004. It also inspired the theme for Chookahs! Kids Festival in Melbourne in 2006, where it was performed, and during the festival children participated in many different activities based on concepts from the book.
• The Arrival was adapted by WA’s Spare Parts Puppet Theatre in July 2006 (before publication of the book) , using digital animation, puppetry and acting.
• Not so much an adaptation as a collaboration, the book of the exhibition Odditoreum at the Powerhouse Museum, Sydney.

[Mostly From Fiction Focus Special Feature on The Arrival, Vol. 21 (1), 2007.]

Finally, the Lu Rees Archives in Canberra has a guide to research materials on Shaun Tan and his work.

One can only wonder what treat is coming our way next.

The Papertigers blog is just about the best thing around for keeping us informed about what is happening with books and reading for young people in Asia.

Anyone heading to Korea shortly should make a point of attending the Voyage to the World of Illustration exhibition being held at the Seoul Arts Center until 23 June. Here’s the Papertigers report. Additional photos and links to English titles about Korea and the Korean diaspora are worth following up.