Pictures!

This is the book that I chose to talk about this week. I know the prompt was to talk about a book that had pictures and words, but this book is 128 pages and has only pictures. As you look at the cover of this book you can see a man holding a briefcase and looking at a foreign creature. This book shows a series of pictures through the story of a man’s life as he goes through the process of immigration. The pictures are very detailed and show the whole story through these pictures without the need for words at all.

            I have never encountered a book like this, which is very fascinating to me. As I “read” the book through the pictures, I found that it was amazing to be able to interpret the pictures and follow the man’s journey. The pictures used many different facial expressions to show the characters emotions, such as the man’s wife and child frowning and crying when they had to part. The artist used some abstract looking pictures to show the way the characters perceived the two different towns. The town the man used to live in was illustrated with “dragon-spikey looking” shadows across the town showing that the town was not a good place to be and the people living there did not like it. When you saw pictures of the new town the man went to, it looks super pretty and perfect. I really liked the way the author used the illustrations to tell the story. I think this was a really clever idea and I recommend everyone to check out this book and give it chance. I hope you will be amazed with this book just like I was! It is called “The Arrival” by Shaun Tan, give it a chance!

(Word count: 302)