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165th out of 1,499 books
—
3,017 voters
Tales from Outer Suburbia
by
Shaun Tan
Breathtakingly illustrated and hauntingly written, Tales from Outer Suburbia is by turns hilarious and poignant, perceptive and goofy. Through a series of captivating and sophisticated illustrated stories, Tan explores the precious strangeness of our existence. He gives us a portrait of modern suburban existence filtered through a wickedly Monty Pythonesque lens. Whether i...more
Hardcover, 96 pages
Published
October 28th 2008
by McClelland & Stewart
(first published January 1st 2008)
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On the face of it, I’m an inadequate reviewer for Shaun Tan. When you review a book for kids, what do you do? You take that little book, you pick apart its layers (if you’re lucky enough to find any), then you box up each and every one of those layers, a paragraph apiece, and voila! Instant review. Having a format to follow makes everything so simple. It’s as if you’re simply filling in the blanks on a Mad Libs sheet. "Pronoun has written an adjective book that will adverb verb you each and ever...more
To say that Shaun Tan has switched gears with his newest book is an understatement. Tales from Outer Suburbia differs from The Arrival as greatly as Maus differs from Mars Needs Moms. Tan has shifted from a silent and captivating depiction of the displacement and wonder felt by a family of immigrants, to a collection of endearing short stories about the bizarre happenings in a quaint little town. The good news is that neither the art nor storytelling has suffered from the transition. The art is...more
Feb 15, 2010
Christine Jensen
rated it
5 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
ya-fantasy-sci-fi
Approximate Interest Level/Reading Level: Junior High/High School
Format: Combination Chapter/Picture Book
Awards: Australian Children's Book of the Year Awards (2009), ALA Notable Books for Children (2010), ALA Best Books for Young Adults (2010), New York Times Best Illustrated (2009), Outstanding International Book List (2010)
It is very difficult to find the right words to describe this book. In a nut shell, it is a collection of short stories and illustrations that are strange, humorous, ominou...more
Format: Combination Chapter/Picture Book
Awards: Australian Children's Book of the Year Awards (2009), ALA Notable Books for Children (2010), ALA Best Books for Young Adults (2010), New York Times Best Illustrated (2009), Outstanding International Book List (2010)
It is very difficult to find the right words to describe this book. In a nut shell, it is a collection of short stories and illustrations that are strange, humorous, ominou...more
2 likes · like · see review
I just love this author! Some of the stories are sad, some are whimsical, and the drawings run to the surreal; but they will all make you think.
My favorite stories are: Eric, No Other Country, Grandpa's Story, and Distant Rain.
The Amnesia Machine contains this quote: "A great deal of intelligence can be invested in ignorance when the need for illusion is deep." -- Saul Bellow
Alert but not Alarmed opens with: "It's funny how these days, when every household has its own inter-continental ballistic...more
My favorite stories are: Eric, No Other Country, Grandpa's Story, and Distant Rain.
The Amnesia Machine contains this quote: "A great deal of intelligence can be invested in ignorance when the need for illusion is deep." -- Saul Bellow
Alert but not Alarmed opens with: "It's funny how these days, when every household has its own inter-continental ballistic...more
5 likes · like · see review
Tales from Outer Suburbia is appropriate for students in grades 7-12. This book won a plethora of awards some of which include: the Australian Book Industry Award for Illustrated Book of the Year (2009), the World Fantasy Award, Best Artist (2009) and the Aurealis Award for Best Illustrated Book/Graphic Novel (2008).
This book is a collection of fifteen fantasy short stories about living on the fringes of suburbia. The textbook describes fantasy as, "extending reality into the unknown [....and g...more
This book is a collection of fifteen fantasy short stories about living on the fringes of suburbia. The textbook describes fantasy as, "extending reality into the unknown [....and g...more
2 likes · like · see review
What does it all mean??? I don’t know and I don’t care, but I still love it! I love the way Shaun Tan’s work makes me feel – puzzled and a little unsettled, but also comforted and understood. I’ve been feeling annoyed by pretentious and purposely obscure literature lately, but this feels less like intentional obfuscation and like something much more honest. It’s strange that I was immediately reminded of Sherwood Anderson’s Winesburg Ohio. Strange because, besides being short stories, the collec...more
9 likes · like · see review
wow, it arrived today and i totally fell in love and i think it's the best book ever! we'll see how the writing is
~~~
i read it as slowly as possible because i didn't want it to end
it official - that's the best book i have and -- well, i have some really nice books
i'm looking forward for more shaun tan because he's great!
~~~
i read it as slowly as possible because i didn't want it to end
it official - that's the best book i have and -- well, i have some really nice books
i'm looking forward for more shaun tan because he's great!
2 likes · like · see review
t was the layout, design, and surreal imagery that attracted me to this book. What a bonus that the 15 short illustrated stories also created a unique and pleasing journey through the extremely cool eye candy. I thought Mr. Tan did an excellent job capturing the voice and imagination of seeing suburbia through a young eyes. As stated in the description the stories are “...about a strange situation or event that occurs in an otherwise familiar suburban world.” My favorites were Eric and Alert but...more
I loved all of the stories in the book and even read a number of them more than once- to myself and out loud to my younger brother. Personally, my favorite stories were Eric, Distant Rain, Alarmed but not Alarmed, and Stick Figures.
My brother (Cameron) is 10 years old, and while I consider this book to be more for adult or young adult readers. There were some stories in this book even he enjoyed. He loved The Water Buffalo, Undertow, and Night of the Turtle Rescue. Granted, all of these stories...more
My brother (Cameron) is 10 years old, and while I consider this book to be more for adult or young adult readers. There were some stories in this book even he enjoyed. He loved The Water Buffalo, Undertow, and Night of the Turtle Rescue. Granted, all of these stories...more
At Reading Rants:
http://www.readingrants.org/2008/12/1...
http://www.readingrants.org/2008/12/1...
2 likes · like · see review
Amazing. This is a picture book for older reader that will captivate your imagination. It will make you smile. It my favorite book. I own Tales from Outer Suburbia and thoroughly loved and savoured. It is amazing and wonderful and different and unique. I have never seen anything like it and doubt I ever will. In fact, that is what makes it so difficult to review, because there is nothing to compare it to - it's in a league of it's own.
There is something quiet and sad about Tales from Outer Subur...more
There is something quiet and sad about Tales from Outer Subur...more
1 like · like · see review
More pictures at parkablogs.com
I bought this book thinking it was an art book, but it's not. Tales From Outer Suburbia is more of an illustrated story book containing 15 short fantasy stories. And it's a children's book, but more for those above 12 year old because some of the stories are, well, very surreal. It's the surrealism of the illustrations that really caught my attention.
Shaun Tan has a knack of storytelling mixing illustrations and words. He would sometimes end a story arc with a two...more
I really like Australian media. Something about their quirky sensibility just hits me in a profound way.
This is the first prose work I've read by Shaun Tan, creator of The Arrival, a wordless gn which puts a whole new face on immigration. I liked The Arrival, but I LOVED this.
It's part short story collection, part gn, part wordless picture book, part friend of The Invention of Hugo Cabret. All the stories are set in a slightly melting clocks version of Australian suburbia. I intend to read eit...more
This is the first prose work I've read by Shaun Tan, creator of The Arrival, a wordless gn which puts a whole new face on immigration. I liked The Arrival, but I LOVED this.
It's part short story collection, part gn, part wordless picture book, part friend of The Invention of Hugo Cabret. All the stories are set in a slightly melting clocks version of Australian suburbia. I intend to read eit...more
1 like · like · see review
Feb 13, 2009
Abby
rated it
5 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
Kelly Link fans and everyone who loves beautiful pictures
Beautiful, otherworldly illustrated stories that are funny, melancholy, and pretty much perfect. These are brief -- some are only a page long -- but you can spend hours studying Tan's intricate, captivating drawings. My favorites are "Eric" (about an alien exchange student who lives in the pantry), "Stick Figures" (the haunting illustrations really tell this story), and the one about the poetry ball, I can't remember its title but it is the best use of cut-and-paste collage to tell a story that...more
1 like · like · see review
is this really for children?? are children really this sad and dark and complicated emotionally?? i dont know, but i know that this book is outstanding. i think in a way it is harder to tell a story without words, like the arrival, but this shows that he is also an exceptional word-story-teller. and i am an exceptional word-hyphen-stringer.
22 likes · like · see review
I enjoyed this though it's hard to say why. Very odd. I like the writing style.
This book reeks of Shirley Jackson on an "up" day. I just wanted to say that because, hey, it's a fun sentence-don't think shirley jackson dark or you'll be disappointed-Shaun Tan leaves more soft edges and quirk. However, I DID think of the Lottery a little as a I read Tan's stories of "outer suburbia". Told in both pictures and text, the book is a collection of short stories with a fresh tone...I found myself wanting to read more. It's possible some people may think his stories are a little to...more
Tales from Outer Suburbia by Shaun Tan
Strip malls, track housing, and white picket fences jump into my mind when I think of suburbia. Everything’s the same, people are happy and stability and routine are the norm.
Shaun Tan has thrown this stereotypical image in the garbage. This quirky collection of 15 concise graphic stories has uprooted every notion I held about suburban life.
Magical surrealism surrounds the story Eric, when an unexpected exchange student gives his host family an unworldly sy...more
Strip malls, track housing, and white picket fences jump into my mind when I think of suburbia. Everything’s the same, people are happy and stability and routine are the norm.
Shaun Tan has thrown this stereotypical image in the garbage. This quirky collection of 15 concise graphic stories has uprooted every notion I held about suburban life.
Magical surrealism surrounds the story Eric, when an unexpected exchange student gives his host family an unworldly sy...more
Tan leaves the reader breathless with these short pieces from the intimate, inner lives of those who live in the suburbs. Using a different style/technique to illustrate each story, the magical realism of Outer Suburbia merges in a disquietude that makes you doubt what may really be happening beyond the borders of urban life. An otherworldly foreign exchange student leaves behind an everlasting garden for his host family, neighborhood dogs exact revenge on a evil man, and a lost undersea diver i...more
Jan 26, 2009
Jennifer Wardrip
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
trt-posted-reviews
Reviewed by Sally Kruger aka "Readingjunky" for TeensReadToo.com
Welcome to the suburbs of Australia as seen through the eyes of author Shaun Tan. This collection of fifteen stories is creatively written and illustrated. A comment on the last page mentions that the book was created with the assistance of "the Australian Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body."
Not only are readers presented with tales inspired by humor and often bizarre events, but they are a...more
Welcome to the suburbs of Australia as seen through the eyes of author Shaun Tan. This collection of fifteen stories is creatively written and illustrated. A comment on the last page mentions that the book was created with the assistance of "the Australian Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body."
Not only are readers presented with tales inspired by humor and often bizarre events, but they are a...more
This was a wonderful collection of short stories told in both written and graphic novel format that is 100% Tan in style and tone.
The stories are quirky and funny, sometimes darkly so. Covering topics all the way from abandoned missiles decorating people’s yard, to a daring nighttime turtle rescue, to a paper map that really does show the end of a city. The story all have a couple things in common; they talk about extraordinary things in a suburban world and they are full of irony.
I enjoyed all...more
The stories are quirky and funny, sometimes darkly so. Covering topics all the way from abandoned missiles decorating people’s yard, to a daring nighttime turtle rescue, to a paper map that really does show the end of a city. The story all have a couple things in common; they talk about extraordinary things in a suburban world and they are full of irony.
I enjoyed all...more
Tan, Shaun. (2009). Tales From Outer Suburbia. New York: Scholastic/Arthur A. Levine. 96 pp. ISBN (Hardcover); $19.99.
Fifteen illustrated tales guide readers in unexpected directions in this quirky, thoughtful, and sometimes even disturbing collection of stories and art. Water buffaloes join poetic scraps of paper to keep readers on their lyrical toes! This is a masterful juxtaposition of art and story. The art juxtaposes realism with an edge of fantasy that never simply repeats the text, but al...more
Fifteen illustrated tales guide readers in unexpected directions in this quirky, thoughtful, and sometimes even disturbing collection of stories and art. Water buffaloes join poetic scraps of paper to keep readers on their lyrical toes! This is a masterful juxtaposition of art and story. The art juxtaposes realism with an edge of fantasy that never simply repeats the text, but al...more
Tales From Outer Suburbia is easily my favorite book that I have read for class this semester. I loved everything about it, from the goofy yet impactful story, to the utterly fantastic drawings. Needless to say, I just placed an order from Amazon to make this book part of my collection.
This fantasy novel is a collection of short stories, poems and drawings about "outer suburbia." It is a place where giant marine animals can show up on your front lawn, missles are part of everyone's yards, stick...more
This fantasy novel is a collection of short stories, poems and drawings about "outer suburbia." It is a place where giant marine animals can show up on your front lawn, missles are part of everyone's yards, stick...more
I knew I would like this book the moment I opened the cover and stopped at the endpapers. I couldn't help but look at each small drawing and imagine what inspired it. These whimsical sketches were only the beginning. The book contains 15 beautifully illustrated short stories.
Each story is set in suburbia, but they contain fantastical elements that give them an odd otherworldly feel. The pictures are superb and seem very surreal due to their imaganitive subject matter. The stories aren’t very lo...more
Each story is set in suburbia, but they contain fantastical elements that give them an odd otherworldly feel. The pictures are superb and seem very surreal due to their imaganitive subject matter. The stories aren’t very lo...more
“Tales from Outer Suburbia” by Australian author-illustrator Shaun Tan is a collection of 15 hard-to-characterize pieces, including a faux found poem and step-by-step instructions for assembling your own pet from “burnt-out kitchen appliances, obsolete computer parts, defunct cassette players… whatever takes your fancy.”
Tan is this year’s winner of the prestigious Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award for Outstanding Contribution to Children’s Literature. While “Tales” is marketed for young adults, I c...more
Tan is this year’s winner of the prestigious Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award for Outstanding Contribution to Children’s Literature. While “Tales” is marketed for young adults, I c...more
Summary: This work is a collection of seemingly unrelated vignettes, each illustrated with detail that is both realistic and surreal.
Personal Reaction: The illustrations in this book are absolutely amazing! I actually went through the book more than once, and each time, I’d find something I’d missed the first couple of times through the book. While each of these vignettes is a full and complete story in itself, the piece that stood out most for me was “Wake.” As an animal lover, especially of do...more
Personal Reaction: The illustrations in this book are absolutely amazing! I actually went through the book more than once, and each time, I’d find something I’d missed the first couple of times through the book. While each of these vignettes is a full and complete story in itself, the piece that stood out most for me was “Wake.” As an animal lover, especially of do...more
Summary:
This graphic novel is a compilation of several short stories that represent a part of suburban life that we never knew existed. The stories only connection is that in which they take place, suburbia. Each story lets you enter through a new world of suburbia. The mesmerizing illustrations tell the story alongside the text.
Personal Reaction:
First of all, I don't think I have ever seen a more beautifully illustrated book. The colors and styles of the illustrations are captivating to say the...more
This graphic novel is a compilation of several short stories that represent a part of suburban life that we never knew existed. The stories only connection is that in which they take place, suburbia. Each story lets you enter through a new world of suburbia. The mesmerizing illustrations tell the story alongside the text.
Personal Reaction:
First of all, I don't think I have ever seen a more beautifully illustrated book. The colors and styles of the illustrations are captivating to say the...more
I liked this book. I kept wondering if it was a novel, since that is what I have been reading lately, and when was I going to see the connection between the chapters. Silly me!! I knew I was going to like the book when I saw the author had used and envelope and stamps (for the stories) on the content page. Very clever. I liked how the Grandpa story was really about how hard married life is, with its ups and downs, that it is not always as easy as it seems. The author writes very good stories an...more
One of the most artistic and interesting books I've seen yet! A collection of 15 stories and poems, all illustrated and loosely set in a generic, unnamed suburb. Each story comes from Shaun Tan's sketchbook, and he has a way of twisting a story or an idea slightly off-kilter. There's a silent water buffalo that lives in an abandoned lot, and always points you in the general direction of the answer to your question, a discovery of a magical inner courtyard in an impoverished home (my favorite), a...more
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Shaun Tan (born 1974) is the illustrator and author of award-winning children's books. After freelancing for some years from a studio at Mt. Lawley, Tan relocated to Melbourne, Victoria in 2007. Tan was the Illustrator in Residence at the University of Melbourne's Department of Language Literacy and Arts Education for two weeks through an annual Fellowship offered by the May Gibbs Children’s Liter...more
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“It's funny how these days, when every household has its own inter-continental ballistic missile, you hardly even think about them. . . . A lot of us, though, have started painting the missiles different colors, even decorating them with our own designs, like butterflies or stenciled flowers. They take up so much space in the backyard, they might as well look nice, and the government leaflets don't say that you have to use the paint they supply.”
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8 people liked it
“Yes, we all know that there's a good chance the missiles won't work properly when the government people finally come to get them, but over the years we've stopped worrying about that. Deep down, most of us feel it's probably better this way. After all, if there are families in faraway countries with their own backyard missiles, armed and pointed back at us, we would hope that they too have found a much better use for them.”
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7 people liked it
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