What can we possibly write about Shaun Tan's books that could do them proper justice? We originally discovered his books nestling in the children's book section of our local library, back at a time when C was probably way too young for them - but we became completely hypnotised by Shaun's ability to produce the most atmospheric, evocative and gorgeous stories - quite often with the most minimal word counts - or with no words at all.

We started out with "The Arrival" - Now universally recognised as one of the finest children's books ever created - though really it's not a children's book per se, it most certainly is a book that children can enjoy but every age group will come away with something different from it.

For me, it is as good a description of what it feels like to be a migrant as anything else you'll ever see. Entirely (and intentionally) wordless, much like the hero in the story it conveys its message and communicates on so many levels purely through illustration. It's fair to say that there's just nothing else like it out there, as it deftly brings home its message of what it feels like to be a stranger in a strange land, but more importantly, the sacrifice it takes to leave everything you love behind moving from the country of your birth to somewhere else and not knowing what you're going to find when you get there.

If (like us) you read, and re-read your books again and again and again there'll always be one scene in your favourites that puts icy fingers up and down your spine and for us it's this one...


The frame immediately preceding it (the face of the man telling the story of his own flight from terror in his own country, relating his tale to the central character - based on Tan himself) is equally powerful, the thousand yard stare of the man telling the story is sobering, heart breaking. It's undermined only slightly when you read the accompanying process book (Sketches from a Nameless Land) and find out that this images was largely compiled from photographs of Shaun prancing around in his lounge wearing a pair of his dad's overalls and waving a weed whacker around.

We've covered many of Shaun's books on the blog including those where he's collaborated with others, such as "The Rabbits" (with John Marsden):

This time flipping migration on its head, and relating a tale of invasion by an all-conquering species of rabbit, trampling and strip-mining the land, displacing the indigenous creatures that live there.

Again it's one of those books that ramps up the tension - and the powerful imagery - with each turn of the page until you're left in no doubt about what this is an allegory for.

Having the luxury of being able to introduce this stuff to C at an early age means that she can fully undersand and digest these topics when they come up in real and actual history and sociology lessons at school, in fact a great many of Tan's books do (thankfully) find their way into teaching plans as part of those lessons - fictional representations though they may be, their core messages are just as grounded in the real world as any historical account.

"The Red Tree" is also a firm favourite. This time it's just Shaun himself writing and illustrating a book about a subject that we've seen dealt with many times in kidlit, not often as successfully and as symbolically as here...

These (and many others) by Shaun are the sort of books I wish I'd had as a kid, sometimes dancing deftly between surreal imagery, but always with something important and relevant to say, making them instantly timeless.

In the case of "The Red Tree" again it's encouraging to hear mental health professionals talk about how important this book is, particularly for younger children who lack the vocabulary or the language to explain what they're going through, but can entirely relate to a more visual (perhaps overtly metaphorical) way of doing so.

Shaun's art style feels like it's constantly evolving, from the semi-photographic and realistic art in "The Arrival" through to his more surreal and painterly work - again as interesting for C (who absolutely loves examining art styles and methods of producing illustration as much as I do).

One last book worthy of note was also the last Shaun Tan book we were sent for review - each and every single one has been lovingly kept, but this one spoke to me directly for many reasons...

"Cicada" spoke volumes about what it's like to live your life as one thing, when in your dreams you live your life entirely differently. The cute little bug in this story is the epitome of a white collar worker (like me) and works for a largely thankless boss, abused by colleagues, but with a piece of knowledge buried deep - that one day there will be an escape from the drudgery of work, and on that day you'll feel transformed. Ever heard the song "Dignity" by Deacon Blue? Yeah this feels a lot like that, in book form.

It's wonderful, surreal, at times higlights how cruel the world is but ultimately triumphant.

We can't get enough of Shaun's work, whether it's his own author-illustrated stuff, or work he's illustrated for others. Without a doubt one of the most important creatives in the world today.

Original Review Links:

ReadItDaddy's Book of the Week - Week Ending 10th January 2014 - "The Arrival" by Shaun Tan (Hodder Children's Books)

ReaditDaddy's First Book of the Week - Week Ending 3rd October 2014 - "Sketches from a Nameless Land" - The Art of 'The Arrival' by Shaun Tan (Hodder Children's Books)

ReadItDaddy's Book of the Week - Week Ending 22nd November 2013 - "The Rules of Summer" by Shaun Tan (Hodder Children's Books)

The Bird King (and other sketches) by Shaun Tan (Templar Books)

Tales of Outer Suburbia by Shaun Tan (Templar Books)

ReadItDaddy's First Book of the Week - Week Ending 16th November 2018: "Cicada" by Shaun Tan (Hodder Children's Books)

ReadItDaddy's Book of the Week - Week Ending 1st Feb 2013 - "Eric" by Shaun Tan (Templar Books)

Memorial by Gary Crew and Shaun Tan (Hodder Children's Books)

The Rabbits by John Marsden and Shaun Tan (Hodder Children's Books)

The Red Tree by Shaun Tan (Hodder Children's Books)

The Viewer by Gary Crew and Shaun Tan (Hodder Children's Books)

Our first book of the week this week is a heart-wrenching, painfully well observed title that really defies the whole 'children's book' label...

They say you should never meet your heroes as you might be disappointed to find that they're just ordinary people really. They say you should never find out how magic tricks really work, because it will rob you of an element of childhood innocence that you can quite comfortably retain in ignorance of how a lady is really sawn in half, or how a rabbit appears from a top hat.

They also say that you should never look at books like "Sketches from a Nameless Land - The Art of 'The Arrival'" by Shaun Tan as you'll find out the magical processes of how an artist starts off with a blank page, and then four years (FOUR YEARS!) later produces one of the most important graphic works of the 21st century.

Tan's initial sketches of the vast cityscape the story's main protagonist finds himself in (image © Shaun Tan)

But sometimes it's impossible to resist. Hodder's companion book to "The Arrival" (which also nailed the book of the week slot with ease back in January of this year) actually works in completely the opposite way to what I expected. I thought that seeing Tan's processes might mean that a little of the magic of the completed work would be lost but actually it stands up on its own as a book that shows just how much work and effort went in to create such a masterpiece.

Shaun Tan is a fantastic illustrator with a rich imagination, but in his own words, he struggled at first with the concept of designing a wordless book with a grounding in realism that still retained his own style delving between the surreal and the fantastical.

Charlotte is beginning to really love process books like this for the same reasons I do. Seeing the first grains of an idea, constantly evolving and constantly polished until they resemble the finished article we've read and re-read so many times. She was recently enthralled by "The Art of Frozen" for similar reasons, seeing the first fleeting glimpses of how Anna and Elsa came to be.

Here in "Sketches from a Nameless Land" we learn something we already knew, that Shaun Tan based the main character on himself (purely for the ease of having an available 'model' to work up sketches from). We also learn a lot of things we didn't know - that for instance several elements are derived from real-life sources important to the history of migration, and several homages appear in the book to famous artworks that have also served as elements of visual history for mass migration throughout the 20th Century.

Charlotte's favourite part of the book dealt with something she'd been jolted by in "The Arrival" - and this was where my early caveats and warnings came into play a little. There's a sequence in "The Arrival" that deals with genocide. Giant creatures stalk through an ancient city, literally hoovering up (and burning) the inhabitants using gigantic hoover-like weapons. The giants are faceless, clad from head to toe in protective suits with huge boots for crushing and squashing. The introduction to that sequence, a fellow migrant's eyes lit with fire as he recalls the scene, is (for me) one of the most powerful images in the book and the following pages reinforce that too. To learn that Tan posed in his father's overalls, using a weed sprayer, and used those photo references for the piece felt like finding out Darth Vader wears a pair of flowery boxers under his dark cape - but it doesn't rob the finished images of their menace or their meaning.

Another section in the book shows the design process for our favourite supporting character "Diggy" (Images © Shaun Tan)

Tan is a genius, there's no doubt about it. He's also a perfectionist, he's methodical and he takes his time to hone his work to the highest sheen and it's evident throughout this companion book that "The Arrival" was a work wrought by a deep love and respect for the subject matter. It's nigh-on impossible to pigeonhole Tan's work, and it's almost rude to describe this as a children's book (it's most certainly something that children can appreciate and love as much as their pet grown-ups but grown ups should definitely not be dismissive about Tan's work, even if they are about other children's literature).

If, like me, you can't resist peeking behind the curtain to find out how things work or how they were produced, this is an essential book. If you've already marvelled at "The Arrival" (and we beg, URGE you to get a copy as soon as you can) then you really do need to read about Tan's enviable skill as storyteller and illustrator, and how he hones his craft too.

Charlotte's best bit: Finding out the not-so-menacing process behind designing "The Giants in Suits" for one of the most powerful sequences in "The Arrival"

Daddy's Favourite bit: A hugely inspirational piece of work and the perfect companion to a book we've read and re-read so many times. If you're interested in art and illustration, or the trickiest type of storytelling there is (wordless) then this is definitely something you need in your collection without a doubt.

(Kindly sent to us for review by Hodder Children's Books)

First published some years ago now, in this centenary year of the outbreak of World War 1 a reprint of Gary Crew and Shaun Tan's superb "Memorial" is a genius move by Hodder. This paperback version of the book tells the powerful story of a tree, planted to celebrate the return of soldiers from the war. Recounted partially by the children of a WW1 veteran, and by conversations with 'Granpa' it builds an emotive and strong message that we should not forget those who fought and died for us in World War 1 and 2, and the multitude of conflicts around the world where brave men and women give up their lives to serve their country.

Gary Crew and Shaun Tan work wonderfully together. More subtly tinged with a touch of the surreal than Tan's other work, he still produces the most beautiful ink and paint illustrations that lend this book gravitas and a fitting sense of honour and homage.

We have read several books that deal with this sensitive subject well, and this is definitely a book that would suit older children. That said, even a 6 year old could fully understand the message therein: That the modern world and the people in it often overlook the huge sacrifice made, and is it right and proper that a memorial to a long-forgotten war should be removed purely for convenience (as is the fate of the tree or the war memorial in this tale).

I love how the grandson takes up the fight, on behalf of his grandma and grandpa, and their fallen comrades. This is strong stuff, serious stuff but deftly written and beautifully illustrated. Not to be missed if you haven't previously caught this wonderful book.

Charlotte's best bit: Huge debate on the fate of the memorial tree in this book. Should they take down the tree or the monument?

Daddy's Favourite bit: Powerful and poignant. Do not miss this if you are discussing and reading about the WW1 centenary with your children

(Kindly sent to us for review by Hodder Children's Books)

Our first book of the week of 2014 is a book we've been meaning to get around to for a very long time. Shaun Tan's "The Arrival" is a book that so many people have praised and recommended to us that we couldn't ignore the clamour of positive voices any longer. Naturally everyone was right, this is by far one of the most amazing children's books ever produced and one that cements Tan into place as one of our favourite children's author-illustrators.

But is it even fair to label this as a children's book? Certainly it's not an easy subject to tackle and it's an extremely difficult book to 'read' to a child for several reasons.

Firstly, it's wordless. Secondly, it deals with a fairly grown up subject (or an entire set of subjects actually, it's that granular) and thirdly it's quite long and involving so definitely not a quick bedtime read by any measure.

But it's an astonishing piece of work. Breaking slightly away from his usual style, Tan claimed he felt uncomfortable illustrating "The Arrival" with its semi-photographic style, and the use of live models throughout to ensure that the human characters are absolutely spot on (and they are).

"So the giants are killing every one with the fiery hoovers on their backs? That's horrible!"- Charlotte

A man leaves his wife and child, and his home country behind as dark dragon-like shadows stalk through their city. Wrenched from his family, the man embarks on a long and difficult journey to a new land where nothing is quite as it seems, where the familiar and unfamiliar rub shoulders and the language barrier is just one of a number of obstacles set to make the man's new life as tough as possible.

The new world is vibrant, surreal and full of wonder. As the man struggles through immigration (chilling scenes here that echo what most refugees have to put up with at border controls) and adjusts to the customs of his newfound home, he thinks of his family and what he must do to earn enough to get back to them.

Kindly (and not so kindly) strangers are met, and in one particularly harrowing set of pages, another refugee tells his own story.

Pause for a moment. If you've ever seen movies like "War of the Worlds" where the alien killing machines make that sort of horrific half air-raid siren / half fog-horn noise, that's the noise you'll have in your head as the stranger recounts the tale of the giants who destroyed his land (and in such a horrific way too. This bit was probably a bit too disturbing for Charlotte and in subsequent readings we've hurried past it briskly but right there is one of the darkest scenes in any graphic novel let alone children's book).

The richness, the cleverness of Tan's visual mind spills onto every page. If anything, it's almost too detailed - you can get lost in the pages of "The Arrival" for hours as you pore over every tiny little stroke rendered with such attention and care.

"I would like a pet like that!" - Charlotte

"The Arrival" is worthy of all the praise we can heap on it and more, and others who have recently experienced it will probably feel the need to do as we did when we first read Shaun Tan's books, hunt down the rest and read them all.

Wordless picture books allow us to interpret their granularity in our own way. For me, obvious allegorical comparisons to the plight of the Jews in Nazi Germany as World War II broke out are unavoidable. For Charlotte, the beginning of understanding what it must be like to be a stranger in a strange land, forced to emigrate to feed your family or just to stay alive.

Stunning, scintillating, vital. Do not miss it.

Charlotte's best bit: The man's rather engaging lizard-dog-fish-pet and all the other wonderful hybrid creatures Shaun Tan is so expert at drawing. 

Daddy's Favourite bit: An absolute belter of a first Book of the Week for us. One that will stand up to being pored over for years to come and establishing Tan as a supreme storytelling and illustrative talent. Can the man do no wrong?

Summer seems like a million miles away now, but as the final strains of Don Henley's "Boys of Summer" fade from my internal jukebox, this book pops through the door like a ray of fresh sunshine. Shaun Tan's "Rules of Summer" is every bit as brilliant as we thought it would be.

Though don't be mistaken, this isn't a book that instantly screams "sunshine" and "happiness" at you. This is a Shaun Tan book and as you'll probably know if you're familiar with the genius work of Mr Tan, you seriously can't judge a book by its cover (though this book's cover is utterly fantastic and entrancing nonetheless).

How does Shaun Tan squeeze such brilliance from urban desolation? How does he mix child-like wonder and curiosity with sinister beasts and an ever-present feeling of danger and peril? How indeed. In "The Rules of Summer" two brothers live by a list of learned life experiences which are tinged with a surreal note of darkness. I always expect to love Shaun Tan's books instantly, but always wonder what Charlotte will actually think of them. Should children really be encouraged to embrace such dark works when really we'd love them to be happy sun-kissed little campers?

She's shown me time and time again though that her taste for the surreal is as keen as mine. We've looked at my huge collection of Taschen books, at artists like Magritte, Ernst and Dali (with the odd parental filtering of some of the racier content), so she appreciates the work of Tan - who firmly establishes his own style as an incredible artist who just happens to produce children's picture books (are they really for children though? Certainly I could fully appreciate that not everyone's kids would find any worth in them but I'm so utterly glad mine does).

As we journey through "The Rules of Summer", and discover the brothers doing what boys seem to do best (teetering along a knife-edge between good and bad behaviour, salvation and danger), the book's undercurrent seizes us and pulls us under the waves to speak in hushed tones of sibling love and rivalry. In any family where an older and younger child play together, you can imagine the conversations, the subtle power struggles, the fights, the making-up and above all the companionship the two children will experience until they're old enough to crack a wry smile and remember childhood.

In essence, Shaun Tan has captured that - fused it with his expert eye into something that acutely describes where we stand in our own personal landscapes, and what we experience through them.

Looking through the eyes of a child beyond what adults see as mundane or ordinary is a very neat conjuring trick, one that Shaun Tan seems to be able to perform at the drop of a battered old bowler hat.

A truly beautiful eye-opening book in so many ways, and a thoroughly well deserved book of the week for both of us.

Charlotte's best bit: "Never leave a red sock on the washing line"

Daddy's Favourite bit: "Never eat the last olive at a party"

(Kindly sent to us for review by Hodder Children's Books)

You know by now that we love Shaun Tan's work, so if you're not prepared to sit through yet another gushing review, you'd better bail now.

Surrealism. How do you introduce the concept of surrealism to a child? The simple answer is - you don't have to. Children are already well equipped to deal with the fantastical. From an early age they have books read to them that feauture anthropomorphised animals, or bizarre fantasy worlds where the laws of physics don't apply.

For Charlotte this is the appeal of Shaun Tan books. Not because they introduce bizarre concepts that take a leap of faith to bend your brain around, but because they describe and visualise the world - or any world for that matter - in a way that children have already accepted.

Somewhere along the line though, in the transition between childhood and adulthood we lose that ability and seldom few of us claw it back.

One of our favourite images in the book. Haunting, beautiful, ghostly.

In "Tales of Outer Suburbia" Shaun Tan explores surrealistic worlds and concepts that have a jarring air of familiarity about them, but are deliciously painted in such original ways that the stories - such as they are - become magical.

For instance, take "Eric" which we've reviewed separately before as a well deserved "book of the week", but features in this anthology. On paper it sounds like the dullest story in the world. An exchange student comes to stay, is taken around by his host family, finds things a bit different and weird, and then abruptly leaves.

Now rewind to the start and put on your Shaun Tan spectacles. The exchange student becomes a magical little sprite-like creature, his fascination is not with the host family's culture but the mundane everyday objects we often completely ignore in our everyday lives. His babbled alien language and questions don't ask "where is the nearest bus station?" but he wants to know why the middle of a plughole is shaped like a flower, or what on earth a sink plunger is for.

The story ends so beautifully that it sticks in the memory, and is a stark contrast to Shaun Tan's usual fairly muted palettes and understated paintings, which echo throughout Tales of Outer Suburbia.

In fact perhaps that's it, perhaps Shaun Tan's greatest gift isn't his absolutely faultless ability to delve into the darkest corners of our imagination and dig out characters, scenes and stories that feel jarringly weird but eerily familiar. It's his gift as the grand hypnotist, an artist who can alter your mind while enjoying his works to such an extent that you can't help but yearn for more.

Beautiful, surreal, essential to your collection.

Charlotte's best bit: The Water Buffalo story.

Daddy's favourite bit: The creepy but wonderful "Man in a Diving Costume" story.

Observing other people's art processes and looking at even their roughest work is always inspirational. I make no pretence that I'm any kind of an 'artist' per se, but I enjoy the processes, enjoy the constant struggle to find a style and also enjoy seeing how other folk do the same. Massively talented artists like Shaun Tan make it all look so easy, but in "The Bird King (and other sketches)" we get to see some of Shaun Tan's rough initial drafts, that later went on to become the sumptuous works of art we know and love.

My wife recently bought me a Shaun Tan sketchbook (as in a book to actually sketch in) and it felt like an act of irreverence for me to start scribbling away in it, particularly as the book has an awesome 'space koala' cover, and the sort of little scribbles in the end paper that are peppered throughout The Bird King.

I showed this book to Charlotte and it was great to see her instantly recognising roughs from "The Rabbits" (by John Marsden and Shaun Tan) and "The Red Tree".

Have to admit though, this is one I bought for me.

There's a frame of mind you enter into, sometimes unknowingly, when you see how Shaun Tan matches the familiar with the downright harrowing. Really can't wait to complete our Tan collection, and also pick up his latest book, The Rules of Summer (due later this year)

Charlotte's best bit: The awesome giant rabbit walking silently past a suburban house

Daddy's favourite bit: Tan's other-worldly misplaced and mish-mash creations (like the brilliant barnacle-encrusted diving guy from "Tales of Outer Suburbia")

Our quest to consume all things Shaun Tan flavoured continues. "The Rabbits" by John Marsden and Shaun Tan is another powerfully allegorical picture book that describes a subject that would normally see any author or illustrator involved in picture books run screaming into the trees, shouting "It just can't be done! It can't be done!"

The subject being dissected here is colonialism - a very grown up topic that quite rightly sailed over Charlotte's head but screamed loudly to me, particularly with the depiction of the Rabbits as an invading red-jacketed force backed up by military might, technical expertise and an almost godless disregard for the indigenous population of the land they rapidly occupy and strip-mine for its resources.

Glorious illustrative panels show the slab-sided rabbits, about as far removed from Charlotte's ideal view of a rabbit - a fluffy and cute bunny that twitches its nose and eats carrots - as it's possible to get.

As the furry natives succumb to the conquering force, the dark tone and sorrowful descriptions of their lives being irreparably changed feels like a raw nerve being gently stroked but with the occasional jab and poke from a sharp instrument.

Again as with anything else that Shaun Tan and John Marsden collaborate on, this is a book that creates as many questions as it answers, and one that might cause quite a few parents to wonder how they'd handle such a subject. After all, in the scope of most school history lessons, children will come across real-world examples as chilling and as difficult to stomach as what happens in this book.

From an artistic perspective, the illustrations are glorious and harrowing at the same time, finely detailed  and though the depiction of the creatures is largely stylised there's an eerie familiarity about the scenes in this book. Dive into any art gallery or museum and look at the huge paintings of subjects like the American War of Independence or the Russian Civil War and you'll see where the inspiration for this book must've come from. Brilliant, serious and dark. Just the way we like our alt-history.

Charlotte's best bit: Oddly I thought she'd really struggle finding stuff to like in this but she fell in love with the sweeping designs of the Rabbit Battle Ships. Amazing pointy-nosed ships that look every inch built for one thing and one thing only, making people extremely sorry for being on the business end of those points.

Daddy's favourite bit: The perfect example of why people shouldn't discount "children's" picture books as a massively effective medium for delivering a sledgehammer blow of a message in a way that children can dissect and digest.

We've previously expressed our love of anything Shaun Tan puts his hand to on the blog so amongst others on our wishlist this year was his brilliantly atmospheric book "The Red Tree".

If you're not instantly in love with the book purely from looking at the cover art, you'll love it once you start delving into the pages and getting lost in the dark (and sometimes fairly opressive) landscapes that are stock in trade of Tan's work.

The Red Tree probably shouldn't even be described as a children's picture book. It appears to deal with a fairly hefty theme - depression - in a way that children can grasp but adults will recognise with bells on. The lone female character in the book lives a fairly mundane life and you soon slip into that state of mind that 'Tan books' evoke.

We see her journey through the day and the metaphors and symbolism depicting depression quietly murmur with each page turn. Perhaps I see it because I've lived it, but it's definitely there, though I'd love to hear other folks impressions on this too.

For Charlotte, the book made her sad. She wanted to know why nothing seemed to cheer up the little girl in the story and why her world seemed like such a dark place. The book ends on a high note though, just in case all this dark and doom-laden talk puts you off.

If nothing else, it's once again an opportunity to lose yourself in the work of one of the most talented people working in picture books today and who could possibly pass up an opportunity like that?

Charlotte's best bit: The last page and the end to the story, so very beautifully done.

Daddy's favourite bit: Again with me it's the fact that this is another weighty theme dealt with in a way that is subtle and understated. Deliciously detailed art makes this one very special book. Are we ever going to find a Shaun Tan book we don't like?

For an eternity we've coveted the lovely lovely Shaun Tan books and this year we made up our minds to make sure we picked up as many as possible. My lovely sister and her hubby (both devoted bookworms with awesome taste) gave us the tiny hardback version of "Eric" last weekend as a belated Christmas pressie (we both live at opposite ends of the country so don't meet up as much as we'd like to).

Eric is a story tweaked lovingly from Shaun Tan's excellent anthology "Tales of Suburbia" and tells the story of an exchange student, who comes to stay with a family.

Eric is quiet, unassuming and of great interest to the younger members of the family who find all his cultural differences absolutely fascinating. He eschews his comfortable bed in favour of sleeping in the larder. He shows very little interest in sightseeing, but picks up tiny bits of bric-a-brac as the family shows him around the town.

There's something about Eric, a character that is visually interesting but a mystery wrapped in an enigma. There's also something totally intoxicating about Shaun Tan's work, with his delicate use of light and shade giving everything he does an almost sombre feel.

But this book is celebratory, and it's also another book that had an electrifying effect on Charlotte - who has demanded it almost daily since we got it. She loves the questions it provokes, and she also rather fell in love with the end of the book when it's revealed that Eric's sudden disappearance did not go unmarked, and Eric left something for the family to treasure for years to come (we won't spoil it, but it's a delightful end to a brilliant brilliant book). The format (small hard back) is great too, as a collection of these tiny little masterpieces would look fantastic on a book shelf - better in a child's hands though, without a doubt!

Our quest to own everything this very talented man has put his hand to continues...!

(See also our review this week of Shaun Tan and Gary Crew's "The Viewer")

Charlotte's best bit: The reveal at the end, which is such a beautiful contrast to a fairly dark and monochrome book.

Daddy's favourite bit: The effect this book had on Charlotte. As addictive to her as the stickiest sugary treat we could possibly think of. A book in constant demand!

Back in February last year, we reviewed Anthony Browne's dark and disturbing tale, "The Tunnel" and I thought we'd never see a children's picture book that was darker in content than that.

Of course, since then we've been catching up with the Shaun Tan back catalogue, and this book - "The Viewer" - visits such dark places and such 'grown up' themes that I thought it'd be an instant miss with Charlotte.

I was wrong. Completely and utterly wrong.

Though The Viewer uses sparse text and a fairly loose story, describing a boy's obsession with his local junk heap and the discovery of a mysterious object - like a steampunk Viewmaster toy - triggers a journey into the deepest darkest heart of what makes us human.

Disturbing as they are, the images the boy encounters each time he uses the viewer are addictive, compulsive, and soon even when he's not using the viewer itself, he's thinking about it - worrying and stressing over it.

We soon find out why, as the story reaches its dramatic conclusion (which, of course, I'm not going to spoil for you). The depth of the messages here may well sail straight over your youngsters head, but they will undoubtedly be completely and utterly absorbed by this book - and will have a million and one questions triggered by the pictures and themes therein.

By means of a frank admission, I did pick this book up for myself (Shaun Tan books are always hot properties at our local library so it was very rare to find one nestling amongst the happy jolly cuddly books) but was surprised at Charlotte's reaction to it. Talking to her about it, and what the ending meant (and indeed what she thought of the boy's folly as he gets ever more sucked into using the viewer) was a delight. In some ways, the discussions triggered by books like this help you get to know your child better than any other shared experience. Scintillating stuff.

Charlotte's best bit: The first time the boy uses the viewer, and picking out each scene (and what it meant)

Daddy's favourite bit: A very strong and heady cocktail of fantastic visuals and spine-tingling tension. It won't be for every kid, but you may be surprised at how fascinating your child finds this book. Probably better suited to older kids (not because there's anything particularly offensive in it, more because of some of the themes it deals with) but try it on the little ones too and see what happens.