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Shaun Tan was born in 1974 and grew up in the northern suburbs of Perth, Western Australia. In school he became known as the “good drawer” which partly compensated for always being the shortest kid in every class. He graduated from the University of WA in 1995 with joint honours in Fine Arts and English Literature, and currently works full time as a freelance artist and author, concentrating mostly on writing and illustrating picture books.
Shaun began drawing and painting images for science fiction and horror stories in small-press magazines as a teenager, and has since then he has received numerous awards for his picture books, including the CBCA (Children’s Book Council of Australia) Picture Book of the Year Award for The Rabbits with John Marsden. In 2001 Shaun was named Best Artist at the World Fantasy Awards in Montreal. He has recently worked for Blue Sky Studios and Pixar, providing concept artwork for forthcoming films. He has worked as a theatre designer, a concept artist for animated films including Pixar's WALL-E and directed the Academy Award-winning short film, The Lost Thing in 2011. In the same year, Tan received the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award, honouring his contribution to international children's literature.
Shaun Tan on himself and Eric:
"Drawing a good picture is like telling a really good lie – the key is in the incidental detail," says Shaun Tan. (interview with Guardian Online, 2009)
“A recurring theme in my sketchbook are characters carrying a suitcase. I’m not sure why. Sometimes it arises because I’ve drawn a character and they look silly standing there without anything in their hands, so I’ll often add a suitcase or a box. This constantly suggested a story. The story ‘Eric’ in Tales from Outer Suburbia was suggested by a similar drawing of a little character with a pointy head and the word Eric written underneath.
I do rarely give names. 'Eric' is an exception, but even then the name is a substitute for something we can’t hear or pronounce properly, so we never know his real name.” (interview with Write Away, 2009)
Winner of the CILIP Kate Greenaway Medal 2020 | In this mind-blowingly beautiful book comprising twenty-five tales, visionary artist and writer Shaun Tan turns his attention to the relationship between humans and animals in varied urban contexts. A rhino on a motorway. An owl at the side of a hospital patient. An eagle spied at multiple international airports. Giant snails declared “indecent” by the public. Dreamlike, mysterious and poignant, this is a book to pore over. Both words and illustrations lend themselves to multiple readings, each experience unearthing alternate interpretations, new discoveries, fresh ways of seeing the world. What a sublimely strange feat this is.
Selected by a distinguished independent panel of experts including our editorial expert, Julia Eccleshare, for Diverse Voices - 50 of the best Children's Books celebrating cultural diversity in the UK. The Arrival has become one of the most critically acclaimed books of recent years, a wordless masterpiece that describes a world beyond any familiar time or place.
The Arrival has become one of the most critically acclaimed books of recent years, a wordless masterpiece that describes a world beyond any familiar time or place. How did it come to be created, and what inspired its unique and captivating story?
Shortlisted for the 2015 CILIP Kate Greenaway Medal Combining humour and surreal fantasy, Shaun Tan pictures a summer in the lives of two boys. Each spread tells of an event and the lesson learned. By turns, these events become darker and more sinister as the boys push their games further and further.
Exquisitely packaged, this is a beautiful, lyrically written and illustrated fable about cultural differences and how we deal with them. Eric comes on a foreign exchange. The narrator is excited that he is coming but then confused by Eric’s responses to things. What is interesting for him? Is he having a good time? How does he see us? All is made clear when the visitor suddenly goes leaving behind an interesting and surprising legacy.
This beautifully illustrated book takes a quirky look at some of the mysteries of urban life. Once you start reading it's very hard to stop reading more of these short stories filled with darkness and delight.
Shortlisted for the 2015 CILIP Kate Greenaway Medal Combining humour and surreal fantasy, Shaun Tan pictures a summer in the lives of two boys. Each spread tells of an event and the lesson learned. By turns, these events become darker and more sinister as the boys push their games further and further.
A beautifully poignant gift book exploring the relationship between man and man's best friend, from the masterful Shaun Tan. One day I threw my stick at you. You brought it back. Then we were walking side by side as if it had always been this way. World-renowned artist and storyteller Shaun Tan reflects on the nature of humans and animals in this exquisitely illustrated fable about owner and Dog. A perfect little gift book from an extraordinary talent.
Award-winning artist Shaun Tan brings his story-making to life in this beautiful sketchbook, now with brand new content. A treasure trove of sketchbook pages, jottings, doodles and drawings from life reveal much about Shaun's personal style and themes in this inspiring collection. Extensive brand new content includes pencil sketches for upcoming books, development work for Eric and cover design ideas for Cicada, along with new oil paint landscape sketches and character studies. This is a must-have for any Shaun Tan fan, particularly art and illustration students, as well as any lover of story and the creative process.
As the world refugee crisis intensified, back in 2017 two teachers of Illustration at Worcester University had the idea of contacting illustrator friends around the world, asking them to draw and send an original postcard on the theme of Migration, to form an installation at the Biennale of Illustration at Bratislava, Slovakia. The response astonished them, with hundreds of cards and personal messages, forming a visually stunning show. The installation has since been mounted in South Korea and will be displayed at further places around the world, including Amnesty International's London offices in the summer of 2019. Over fifty of the postcards, mailed from 32 countries, are reproduced in actual size in this very special book, to be published on 9 May 2019. All the works have been donated and the book's royalties will be shared between Amnesty International and IBBY (International Board on Books for Youth). Leading children's book illustrators from the UK, including Christopher Corr, Neal Layton, Jackie Morris, Jane Ray and Chris Riddell, have contributed cards, along with illustrators from Argentina to Russia, South Africa to Iran. Australian illustrator Shaun Tan has written the Introduction. Janetta Otter-Barry, publisher of Otter-Barry Books, says: It's an honour to be chosen as publishers of this book. The fragility of a mailed postcard and of a migrating bird come together so aptly to capture the theme of human migration. It is quite literally formed of images and messages of hope, and I think that people will cherish it for that reason as well as for its brilliant variety and heartfelt approach. Migrations: Open Hearts, Open Borders is edited by the International Centre for the Picture Book in Society at the University of Worcester, and will be published on 9 May 2019 by Otter-Barry Books. Hardback GBP9.99
A stunning picture book for anyone who has ever felt unappreciated, from Shaun Tan, Academy Award winner and winner of the Kate Greenaway Medal 2020. Cicada work in tall building. Data entry clerk. Seventeen year. No sick day. No mistake. Tok Tok Tok! Cicada works in an office, dutifully working day after day for unappreciative bosses and being bullied by his co-workers. But one day, something truly extraordinary happens . . . A story for anyone who has ever felt unappreciated, overlooked or overworked but dreams of magic, from Australia's most acclaimed picture book creator, and first BAME winner of the Kate Greenaway Medal. This is Shaun Tan's first author-illustrator book in five years, and his most important and moving fable since The Arrival.
Winner of the CILIP Kate Greenaway Medal 2020 | In this mind-blowingly beautiful book comprising twenty-five tales, visionary artist and writer Shaun Tan turns his attention to the relationship between humans and animals in varied urban contexts. A rhino on a motorway. An owl at the side of a hospital patient. An eagle spied at multiple international airports. Giant snails declared “indecent” by the public. Dreamlike, mysterious and poignant, this is a book to pore over. Both words and illustrations lend themselves to multiple readings, each experience unearthing alternate interpretations, new discoveries, fresh ways of seeing the world. What a sublimely strange feat this is.
This limited gift box edition includes an exclusive signed and numbered print. A stunningly presented collection of twenty-five illustrated short stories exploring the relationship between humans and animals, from award-winning visual storyteller Shaun Tan. Where can we live if not in each other's shadow? World-renowned artist Shaun Tan applies his extraordinary talent to a reflection on the nature of humans and animals, and our urban co-existence. From crocodile to frog; tiger to bee, this is a dark and surreal exploration of the perennial love and destruction we feel and inflict - of how animals can save us, and how we are entwined, for better or for worse. Tales from the Inner City is a truly masterly work, bearing all of Shaun Tan's trademark wit and poignancy in both its prose and exquisite illustrations. This limited gift box edition includes an exclusive signed and numbered print.
Pictura is a stunning range of black-and-white art to collect and colour for all ages. This large poster book format includes 12 prints, which can be removed from the book, coloured in and displayed on your wall. In this title from the urban strand, industry is born from an egg as other animals and plants look on. As it grows, metal trades metal, towns march and skyscrapers smoke, until all converge in a powerful, violent Metropolis. This mind-blowing creation myth from the inimitable Shaun Tan is yours for the colouring.
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