- Graphic Novels
- Ages 9–14
- Contemporary
The Arrival
Part of the Shaun Tan universeOpen the collection
A landmark wordless graphic novel about migration, separation and finding your way in a strange new world.
- Best for9–14
- FormatGraphic
- Length128 pp
- Read aloud~1 hr
The vibe
What it’s like.
Tone
- Melancholic
- Thought provoking
- Bittersweet
- Inspirational
- Whimsical
Themes
Experience meters
What’s it about?
The story.
The Arrival follows a father who leaves his family and travels to a strange new country, hoping to build a safer life before they can join him. There are no words: the entire story is told through sepia-toned images, invented alphabets, unfamiliar creatures, dreamlike machinery and silent sequences of memory, fear, work and kindness. Shaun Tan makes the migrant experience feel emotionally immediate by refusing to make the new world fully readable; the reader has to feel the confusion, wonder and loneliness of arrival alongside the protagonist. The book is beautiful, humane and sophisticated, with enough narrative clarity for children but enough visual and symbolic depth for adults. It is best for readers who can sit with ambiguity and emotion, and it is especially valuable for conversations about refugees, migration, family separation and welcome.
Fit check
Right for your child?
Where it lands by age
- 1
- 3
- 5
- 7
- 9
- 11
- 13
- Best fit · 9–14
- Read aloud · 8–14
- Independent · 9–14
Prose load
Light
Visual support
Very high
Reluctant-reader friendly
Workable
Read-aloud quality
Workable
Works well for
- Gift-buying
Preview before sharing if a child is sensitive to: absent parent, poverty or hardship, scary imagery, violence.
Bedtime suitability
2 / 5 · Better outside bedtime
Sensitive-child
1 / 5 · Tough fit
Graphic intensity
5 / 5 · Intense
Best for
- Wordless graphic novel
- Migration
- Visual literacy
- Older picture book
- Adult appeal
Avoid if
- Needs light bedtime story
- Prefers text led books
- Very sensitive to family separation
Particularly good for children who are…
- Immigration or new country
- Reluctant reader
- Single parent family
In the classroom
How it works in school.
A wordless graphic novel and a powerful springboard for empathy and talk about migration and belonging; the invented world rewards inference and discussion of the author's choices.
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 migration without words — a father leaving his family, arriving in a strange country with invented alphabets and dreamlike machinery, the bewilderment given pictorial form. The wordless graphic novel that makes a child feel what a refugee feels.
- Secret world
- Family belonging
- Making a difference
Why parents love it
The Shaun Tan modern classic — sepia-toned wordless graphic novel on migration, the strange new world rendered as actually strange. Profound on refugee experience; useful for any age that can sit with images. Beautiful, demanding, unforgettable.
- Beautiful illustrations
- Conversation starter
- 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.
Where to go next…
Escalation reads — a step up in scale, silliness, or stakes.
Where you’ll find it
On these reading lists.
Buy or borrow
Pick up a copy.
- Bookshop.org ↗
- Waterstones ↗
- Amazon UK ↗
- Hive ↗
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