Book report on " tales from outer Suburbia" by Shawn Tan

This book to be was really delightful. It has many stories of little mysteries in our daily life, accompanied by beautiful drawn illustrations. The stories in this book are short, but yet full of life. It tells of stories which are familiar yet mysterious, like for example the story “wake” which explains the question “why do dogs bark at night” in a very interestingly way, where dogs gather and sit on furniture and bark at a burning house where a fellow canine was killed. Yes, you may find it kind of weird, but yet it seems possible and is, in a way, philosophies respect and friendship. The stories in this book really give a lot of space for thought and makes small incidents and events in our life interesting.

Another story I found really delighting was the story “eric”. This story tells about a foreign exchange student who comes to live with this family, from the point of view of the son. This foreign student seems to act very differently, showing great interest and curiosity with the small things around him. The illustration of this is very interesting, illustrating the foreign student as a small black creature as if he was cut out of paper, which really brings out the fact that this foreign student is different. This creature goes around doing stuff like hiding in cups, reading books, discovering small objects, watching movies etc. The ending to me was truly beautiful. The foreign leaves without a word one morning, making the family feel very sad and uncomfortable. But, once you flip the page, you see this wonderful picture at the kitchen table, where many colourful flower like objects comes growing out of other small objects and right in the middle shows this cup, with a note saying “Thank you for wonderful time”. To me, this picture really brings out something different in a typical scene, it shows the beauty of a quite yet meaningful goodbye, and that miracles can happen from even the smallest things.

Of course, this only two of the stories in the book, and there are many more tale which are filled with delight and darkness. This is a really good book and I strongly urge you to read it. It really makes you stop and admire the beauty of the small things around you.