96 pages
English language
Published June 27, 2008
A short and delightful foray into various worlds that innocuously exist abutting our own.
I love everything about this book from the illustrations to the quirky little stories. So much care has been taken to make the whole book fun, even the boring bits, check out the best ever contents page (image on my blog)
The illustrations reminded me of the far side cartoons, and they pair up perfectly with the short stories. There are so many gems here it is tough to pick a favourite, the story about the government keeping missiles in everybody's gardens and how people soon modify them to be useful, wonderfully shows a side of Humans you don't get to see. The instructions from a young girl on how to make your own pet out of unwanted household items is super cute. But for me the stand out story was "Eric" a story about an exchange student and the impact he has on the visiting family, seriously beautiful ending. …
I love everything about this book from the illustrations to the quirky little stories. So much care has been taken to make the whole book fun, even the boring bits, check out the best ever contents page (image on my blog)
The illustrations reminded me of the far side cartoons, and they pair up perfectly with the short stories. There are so many gems here it is tough to pick a favourite, the story about the government keeping missiles in everybody's gardens and how people soon modify them to be useful, wonderfully shows a side of Humans you don't get to see. The instructions from a young girl on how to make your own pet out of unwanted household items is super cute. But for me the stand out story was "Eric" a story about an exchange student and the impact he has on the visiting family, seriously beautiful ending.
I'm going to give this book to my youngest to read and I can guarantee there will be some tears from her. 100% recommend this, you're missing out big time if you don't read it
Blog review is here with extra images > felcherman.wordpress.com/2019/08/13/tales-from-outer-suburbia-by-shaun-tan/
This was much better than I was expecting. Should I ever have children, this is one of the books I will read with them. It has an open ended air that cultivates a worship of the mischievous, infinitely varied world we live in. The closest genre I can compare it to is Lovecraft's works of cosmic horror, where reality seems a thin veil for the fantastic and unimaginable. It deals with real psychological themes of abandonment, love in many forms, and the choices we make without thinking.
Here lies no horror or demons, so maybe we'll call Tan's work a volume in cosmic joy.
