by Shaun Tan (2011)
This is actually a collection of three previously published short works: The Red Tree, The Lost Thing, and The Rabbits (written by John Marsden) -- and it's wonderful to have them bound together with notes by the author at the end of the pieces. The Red Tree is a dark story of all the things that can go wrong for a person, but it is also about the hope that can be found where least expected -- and within oneself. The Rabbits is an intense take on colonial conflicts, representing natives as armadillos and rabbits as invaders of a beautiful land. The repetition in the paintings for this piece present an overwhelming picture of what it is to see land destroyed by industry and invasion. The Lost Thing is probably my favorite story in the collection. The borders and backgrounds of each page are composed of engineering drawings and charts, but the art itself depicts a strange dystopian future where people are too busy to notice strange things going on around them. The societal commentary becomes more obvious in Tan's representation of a newspaper page showing advertisements from different federal departments. Peripheral advertisements show The Federal Department of Economics (slogan "consumere ergo sum") which states that "We understand at the end of the day, all that matters is the balance sheet." The Department of Management has their slogan printed up in the corner of the page: "bureaucritae opacus." This is a multi-faceted story that could be enjoyed by readers of any age group -- whether they notice the difference between adults and children in the story, the futuristic landscape, the political commentary or something else entirely.
These stories could be used for a number of different discussions about social studies -- but the art is also wonderful inspiration to discuss how style, color, light, and other elements of art can play a critical role in setting mood. Especially for a simple piece of written work like the poem in The Red Tree, it would be interesting to take the words away from the illustrations and read to a class. After they had visualized their own images I could show Tan's illustrations and ask how that changed the experience of reading the text -- and how their interpretations differed from the author's.
This is actually a collection of three previously published short works: The Red Tree, The Lost Thing, and The Rabbits (written by John Marsden) -- and it's wonderful to have them bound together with notes by the author at the end of the pieces. The Red Tree is a dark story of all the things that can go wrong for a person, but it is also about the hope that can be found where least expected -- and within oneself. The Rabbits is an intense take on colonial conflicts, representing natives as armadillos and rabbits as invaders of a beautiful land. The repetition in the paintings for this piece present an overwhelming picture of what it is to see land destroyed by industry and invasion. The Lost Thing is probably my favorite story in the collection. The borders and backgrounds of each page are composed of engineering drawings and charts, but the art itself depicts a strange dystopian future where people are too busy to notice strange things going on around them. The societal commentary becomes more obvious in Tan's representation of a newspaper page showing advertisements from different federal departments. Peripheral advertisements show The Federal Department of Economics (slogan "consumere ergo sum") which states that "We understand at the end of the day, all that matters is the balance sheet." The Department of Management has their slogan printed up in the corner of the page: "bureaucritae opacus." This is a multi-faceted story that could be enjoyed by readers of any age group -- whether they notice the difference between adults and children in the story, the futuristic landscape, the political commentary or something else entirely.
These stories could be used for a number of different discussions about social studies -- but the art is also wonderful inspiration to discuss how style, color, light, and other elements of art can play a critical role in setting mood. Especially for a simple piece of written work like the poem in The Red Tree, it would be interesting to take the words away from the illustrations and read to a class. After they had visualized their own images I could show Tan's illustrations and ask how that changed the experience of reading the text -- and how their interpretations differed from the author's.
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