Allen & Unwin
September 2026
ISBN:9781761180811
Publisher:A&U Children’s
Imprint:A & U Children
RRP: $35.00
Some reviews just demand to be written straight away and this is one. I read this glorious, sumptuous, provocative, thoughtful, philosophical book last night and absolutely revelled in its beauty and magicality.
I am still miffed that I missed out on an event with Shaun Tan years ago by mistake, and truly hope that at some stage I might have the privilege of hearing him speak because, to my mind, he is arguably an absolute genius. This is one of his books to which you – and your readers – will return time and time again as you explore not only every detail in every spread, but also closely reflect on the fairly pared-back text.
In a world where she is the only human, a girl fully embraces her life with her rather unusual family, the peculiar inhabitants including her friends, the curious and quirky pastimes, the concepts of school and prayers and entertainments so different to anything we might imagine. She is 100% happy and fulfilled with her life.
But then a strange hole opens up in the sky and an even stranger thing falls out of it to the ground. It’s weird and it’s clumsy and it’s freakish to the girl and her posse of mates. Then it gets even weirder when a smaller version of the thing emerges from the big one. And weirder again when that smaller thing reveals itself to be a boy. Like her. Human.
The boy insists he has come to ‘rescue’ her because she, as a human, is in the wrong place with these eccentric creatures and landscape [hmmm, you know what I’m thinking here]. And the girl listens to him and she almost – almost – believes him when he says she must go with him back through the hole in the sky to be where she belongs.
But if we have faith in our own self and our own mind, we know where we belong and that might not fit someone else’s ideas and that’s OK. What a powerful lesson to learn here! To know we are loved and cherished and valued for our own sake and not measured by anyone else’s standard is a treasure to be embraced.
I cannot even conceive of the time that Shaun has expended in this book’s creation but truly it is yet another of his masterpieces. As always, I am reminded of many years ago when I was team leader at Marrickville library and had a very wet-behind-the-ears ‘children’s librarian’ who insisted that The Rabbits should be in the early childhood section because ‘it’s a picture book – a book with lots of illustrations and few words.’ As a good team leader I didn’t tell her she was not very smart but I did overrule her.
This could be construed as a picture book by her criteria but it is certainly not for early childhood. I would describe it as a graphic/illustrated novel and it is very comparable to The Arrival in that sense but also has text – which is often amusing as the girl can be quite snarky with her observations.
What’s not to love about this triumph? As a book to fascinate your younger reader; as a study in visual literacy, art expression, narrative through imagery it’s a must-have for your older students and as a stunning experience for yourself it doesn’t get any better than this. I don’t have a suitable emoji but I’m giving it a spacey 5 🌌🪐🛸💫☄️rating which seems the best fit – for readers around 10 upwards I would suggest.
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