Tales from outer suburbia

Tales from Outer Suburbia is a graphic novel for young readers by award-winning Australian illustrator and author, Shaun Tan. There are fifteen tales, each illustrated with Tan's wonderfully evocative artwork. The endpapers are filled with intricate drawings; the contents page is in the form of an envelope whose stamps list the tales, their denomination denoting the page number, whose addressee forms the dedication, whose sticker credits the publisher, all so clever! The second-last page is basically an acknowledgements page, but in the form of a library sticker.

The tales are many and varied: some quirky and strange, some funny, some very moving. The illustrations are, of course, wonderful and careful examination of each page reveals many more items than are apparent at first glance. Tan has a talent for descriptive prose too: "The newly planted fruit trees died in the sandy soil of the too-bright backyard and were left like grave-markers under the slack laundry lines, a small cemetery of disappointment."

Different tales are likely to appeal to different readers, but favourites are likely to be "no other country" (a mysterious inner courtyard), "alert but not alarmed" (backyard ICBMs) and "our expedition" (a trek to the limits of Dad's street directory). Marvellous!!