- Picture Books
- Ages 10–15
- Fables
Cicada
Part of the Shaun Tan universeOpen the collection
A bleak, brilliant picture-book fable for older readers about an exploited office worker who is ignored until transformation becomes possible.
- Best for10–15
- FormatPicture
- Length32 pp
- Read aloud~6 min
The vibe
What it’s like.
Style
- Repetitive
- Literary
Tone
- Dark
- Melancholic
- Thought provoking
- Bittersweet
- Absurdist
Themes
Experience meters
What’s it about?
The story.
Cicada works in a grey office tower, doing data entry for humans who ignore him, underpay him and deny him basic dignity. The text is stark and repetitive, matching the drudgery of his work, while the images make the office world feel cold, brutal and absurd. For much of the book, Cicada is almost unbearably diminished: segregated, dismissed, made to feel less than everyone around him. Then, at the end of his working life, the story shifts into something stranger, greener and more transformative. Cicada is a short book, but its themes are mature: exploitation, prejudice, workplace cruelty, alienation, endurance and release. It is best used with older children, teens or adults who can handle symbolic darkness and discuss what the story is doing. It is not cosy, but it is unforgettable.
Fit check
Right for your child?
Where it lands by age
- 1
- 3
- 5
- 7
- 9
- 11
- 13
- Best fit · 10–15
- Read aloud · 9–14
- Independent · 10–15
Prose load
Light
Visual support
Very high
Reluctant-reader friendly
Tougher fit
Read-aloud quality
Workable
Works well for
- Reading together
- Gift-buying
Preview before sharing if a child is sensitive to: bullying, mental health, racism or discrimination, scary imagery, violence.
Bedtime suitability
1 / 5 · Wide awake
Sensitive-child
1 / 5 · Tough fit
Graphic intensity
5 / 5 · Intense
Best for
- Older picture book
- Social allegory
- Workplace satire
- Visual literature
- Transformation
Avoid if
- Young preschoolers
- Very sensitive to bullying
- Needs comfort reading
Particularly good for children who are…
- Being bullied
- Low self esteem
- Anxiety and worry
In the classroom
How it works in school.
Shaun Tan's spare, haunting fable about an overlooked office worker — a powerful discussion and inference text for older readers about dignity and belonging.
A book children love that happens to support school — never a stand-in for the texts a class is taught with. Reviewed for the classroom · June 2026.
Why it lands
Why they love it.
Why kids love it
The specific weight is workplace cruelty — Cicada the insect doing data entry in a grey office tower, ignored and underpaid by humans who treat him as less than them, the bleakness sustained until the very end when something extraordinary happens. A teen reader gets one of the most quietly devastating picture books ever made.
- Transformation
- Making a difference
- Surviving danger
Why parents love it
The Shaun Tan picture book for older children — exploitation, prejudice and endurance handled as a short, stark fable, then the final transformation that reframes everything. Not a cosy bedtime read; the kind of book best discussed afterwards. For ten-plus, ideally with an adult.
- Conversation starter
- Beautiful illustrations
- Great writing
- Educational for adult too
About the author & illustrator
Shaun Tan.
If you liked this
Three ways out of this book.
If you liked this, try…
Lateral matches. Same shelf, different texture.
Come into this from…
Easier or preparing reads — perfect lead-ins.
Where to go next…
Escalation reads — a step up in scale, silliness, or stakes.
More like this…
Books that share themes and topics with this one.
Buy or borrow
Pick up a copy.
- Bookshop.org ↗
- Waterstones ↗
- Amazon UK ↗
- Hive ↗
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