Review: Lost & Found by Shaun Tan



If you have never seen Tan's art
prepare to be amazed.

 Lost & Found consists of three very different short stories told through the unique art of Shaun Tan.  The first story, 'The Red Tree' is a personal story that takes the reader though a dark time in a person's life, but leaves them with the hope of things to come.  'The Lost Thing' combines compassion and civil disobedience in a heartwarming tale of finding yourself through aiding another.  Finally, 'The Rabbits' conveys the horror and despair of felt by native tribes in Australia as their land was taken by European settlers and their world changed forever.

Throughout these stories, Tan captivates the reader with his eclectic use of medium, color and light.  Bright spots of color stand out against a monocromatic, but vastly detailed, backdrop to draw the reader's eye to the important point of the image.  Tan has done another wonderful job of telling a rich story through complex images and sparce words that will have readers thinking about it long after the book is done.
Recommended for Readers Of:
Neil Gaiman, Brian Selznick, David Weisner, Art Spiegelman

Dystopia Rising

Sorry for the unexpected brake in posting – like many of my friends, I spent the New Year and most of the first week of 2012 at home drinking hot tea and waiting for my throat to stop feeling as though it were filled with crushed glass. [We have apparently been passing plague around.]  Anyhow, I am back among the living-if-not-truly-well so back to sharing my rambles with the world. :D

I know it has been discussed quite often, but I am fascinated by the rise in dystopian literature targeted toward the YA audience.  What, exactly, is the appeal of reading about a world where society, and sometimes the planet, has collapsed?  Does it make readers feel better about the state of the current world?  Personally, I am an escapist reader and I always have certain reservations about reading dystopian lit.  If I’m reading to escape the bad in my own life why would I want to read about a world come apart at the seams?  But the allure is there.  I believe it is something of the “what if” factor; people love to play at knowing how they would react in a certain situation.

My two favorite dystopian novels of 2011 were: 

Wither by Lauren Destefano

& Delirium by Lauren Oliver

Lauren DeStephano's Website

Lauren Oliver's Books

Why do you (or don’t you) read Dystopias?