Lost Thing

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Shaun Tan is an incredible artist whose pictures are able to capture nostalgia, and the bittersweet sadness that exists in the contemporary world. Rather than superficial princesses and shallow fairy tales, Tan asks us to also reflect upon aspects of life through original illustrations that are humorous, sentimental, poignant and satirical. Ben Wright’s staging tells the confused story gently, and as clearly as it can. The cast, all amplified, mixes opera and musical theatre voices, with Joel Brown engaging as Shaun, the central figure. Conducted by Timothy Burke, Maxwell’s score, full of cycles and repetitions, perks up with the little arias for Victoria Oruwari and Bethan Langford, and there’s a nice bossanova about the hell of filling in forms, but too much of it is static and slow, content to accompany the narration when it could be telling the story. A significant feature of Shaun Tan’s writing is the simplicity of the written text. Taken alone, the written text provides little detail about the narrative. The lost thing itself, for instance, could be read as a puppy-like creature if only the words were considered. From the narrow perspective of the written text, then, the narrative is presented in the form of an anecdote which Tan appears to offer directly to the reader: “So you want to hear a story?”. Despite the apparently bizarre nature of his encounter with a strange creature, Shaun (the human protagonist) adopts a dry, matter-of-fact tone, which is in keeping with the colourless place in which he lives. The anecdote itself is bookended by Tan traveling on a tram, a framing device that provides the impression that the anecdote is told within a single tram journey. Creature: Paintings, Drawings, and Reflections is a new collection of images from artist and writer Shaun Tan's best-known works as well as more than 100 illustrations that have never been seen before. The book also includes essays by the artist.

Do you think the lost thing is a machine or a living creature? Does it have feelings and emotions? How can you tell? The major creative task will involve students incorporating their understanding of picture book conventions and expanding on one of The Lost Thing’s themes. This unit of work will have drawn attention to the way Shaun Tan took inspiration from various sources when constructing The Lost Thing. In this task students will take inspiration from one or more of The Lost Thing’s elements to construct their own picture book. Students select a theme The Lost Thing explores that they would like to construct their own picture book around. These may include (but not limited to) conformity, dystopia/utopia, creativity, individuality, bureaucracy, modern life, art, friendship or belonging. Different teachers may have placed varying degrees of emphasis upon these themes during the study so some guidance to students will be appropriate. 2. Elements of construction Well, I’ve loved the other books I’ve read by this author-illustrator, and he recently won an Oscar for a film adaptation of this book (an Academy Award winning animation short I’ve not seen, yet) so I was sufficiently curious to get and read a copy of the book. And, yes, I want to see the film; I can see it being an excellent short. Activity: Find evidence within the images or written text that supports the reading that the lost thing is gentle and vulnerable. (Could any other adjectives apply?)

Teaching about the latest events?

Choose three words to describe the narrator and share them with your group. As a group decide on the three best words – you need to be able to explain why you have chosen them. The Lost Thing received an Honourable Mention at the Bologna International Book Fair, Italy and an honourable mention at the CBCA Awards. In 2020, The Lost Thing won the Phoenix Award in the US, given twenty years later to a book that did not win a major award at the time of publication. Original illustrations from the book have been exhibited at the Itabashi Art Museum in Tokyo and eslewhere in Japan, Germany, Sweden and the UK. Talk about other images that were created in the minds-eye when you read the story aloud. What do they imagine the narrator of the story looks like? Literature circle

Describe the different visual elements used to represent the boy’s world and the world of lost things. Why do you think these two places are depicted in the way they are? Tan almost studied to become a geneticist, and enjoyed chemistry, physics, history and English while in high school as well as art and claimed that he did not really know what he wanted to do. [7] During his university studies, Tan decided to move from academic studies to working as an artist. [8] Draw a line on a whiteboard (whole class activity), or place a string across some desks (small group activity) – this represents the tug-of-war rope. Some focus can be given to student responses by drawing their attention to character, theme, plot and so on. It can be useful to make these post-it notes a different colour to the earlier activity to clearly differentiate the before and after responses. Again, all responses should be initialed.The strapline on the front cover reads ‘A tale for those who have more important things to pay attention to’.Now that you have read the book, how do you think this strapline relates to the story? Thinking about themes Consider at least four illustrations in this text in detail, and critically analyse how Tan uses a variety of techniques to convey his ideas to reader. In the following videos, the author talks about the development of the movie. Could you create some digital illustrations, animations or 3D models based on this book (or another of your favourite books)? Tidigare mottagare". Peter Pan-priset (in Swedish). International Board on Books for Young People . Retrieved 27 August 2014.