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Shaun Tan's books are always out of the box, quirky but poignant. Cicada is no different, in fact, I think it's my favourite of his books to date.
Cicada is the story of a Cicada who works as a data entry clerk for humans. For seventeen years he has been treated horrendously by his bosses and human colleagues. But things are about to change, and Cicada is going to make sure he has the last laugh.
I had no idea where Tan was taking this book. It's a dark book - both in colour and themes - but it's wonderfully executed and simply inspiring. I can read a lot into the images and story, but I'm going to leave that up to you to check out because you NEED to read this one!
The formatting for this book is very clinical, much like the first half of Cicada's story. Cicada talks in four lines, with his last line, always being 'Tok Tok Tok!'. His voice is clipped and stunted, as you would expect from a non-English speaking native. Tan's text is printed on stark white pages, with the text on the left-hand page and the full page image on the right. His artwork is amazing, with so much detail packed on to every page, that your heart hurts for this poor little Cicada who has so much personality and emotion-packed into his big round eyes and short green suit-clad statue.
The ending ... is pure gold... and so Shaun Tan humour. I love his social commentary that is interwoven into all of his books.
Cicada by Shaun Tan won the CBCA Picture Book of The Year 2019.
This review was originally posted at The Never Ending Bookshelf and can be found here: https://wp.me/p3yY1u-1Ob
Cicada is the story of a Cicada who works as a data entry clerk for humans. For seventeen years he has been treated horrendously by his bosses and human colleagues. But things are about to change, and Cicada is going to make sure he has the last laugh.
I had no idea where Tan was taking this book. It's a dark book - both in colour and themes - but it's wonderfully executed and simply inspiring. I can read a lot into the images and story, but I'm going to leave that up to you to check out because you NEED to read this one!
The formatting for this book is very clinical, much like the first half of Cicada's story. Cicada talks in four lines, with his last line, always being 'Tok Tok Tok!'. His voice is clipped and stunted, as you would expect from a non-English speaking native. Tan's text is printed on stark white pages, with the text on the left-hand page and the full page image on the right. His artwork is amazing, with so much detail packed on to every page, that your heart hurts for this poor little Cicada who has so much personality and emotion-packed into his big round eyes and short green suit-clad statue.
The ending ... is pure gold... and so Shaun Tan humour. I love his social commentary that is interwoven into all of his books.
Cicada by Shaun Tan won the CBCA Picture Book of The Year 2019.
This review was originally posted at The Never Ending Bookshelf and can be found here: https://wp.me/p3yY1u-1Ob