Other editions of book Tales From Outer Suburbia

An exchange student who's really an alien, a secret room that becomes the perfect place for a quick escape, a typical tale of grandfatherly exaggeration that is actually even more bizarre than he says... These are the odd details of everyday life that grow and take on an incredible life of their own in tales and illustrations that Shaun Tan's many fans will love.

Do you remember the water buffalo at the end of our street, or the deep-sea diver we found near the underpass? Do you know why dogs bark in the middle of the night?A new picture book from the international award-winning illustrator Shaun Tan, "Tales from Outer Suburbia" is a unique and inspiring collection of original stories and illustrations.Shaun Tan, creator of "The Arrival", "The Lost Thing" and "The Red Tree", reveals the quiet mysteries of everyday life: homemade pets, dangerous weddings, and secret rooms filled with darkness and delight!

Do you remember the water buffalo at the end of our street?Or the deep-sea diver we found near the underpass?Do you know why dogs bark in the middle of the night?Shaun Tan, creator of The Arrival, The Lost Thing and The Red Tree, reveals the quiet mysteries of everyday life: homemade pets, dangerous weddings, stranded sea mammals, tiny exchange students and secret rooms filled with darkness and delight.

Breathtakingly illustrated and hauntingly written, Tales from Outer Suburbia is by turns hilarious and poignant, perceptive and goofy. Through a series of captivating and sophisticated illustrated stories, Tan explores the precious strangeness of our existence. He gives us a portrait of modern suburban existence filtered through a wickedly Monty Pythonesque lens. Whether it’s discovering that the world really does stop at the end of the city’s map book, or a family’s lesson in tolerance through an alien cultural exchange student, Tan’s deft, sweet social satire brings us face-to-face with the humor and absurdity of modern life.

Breathtakingly illustrated and hauntingly written, Tales from Outer Suburbia is by turns hilarious and poignant, perceptive and goofy. Through a series of captivating and sophisticated illustrated stories, Tan explores the precious strangeness of our existence. He gives us a portrait of modern suburban existence filtered through a wickedly Monty Pythonesque lens. Whether it’s discovering that the world really does stop at the end of the city’s map book, or a family’s lesson in tolerance through an alien cultural exchange student, Tan’s deft, sweet social satire brings us face-to-face with the humor and absurdity of modern life.

"Tales From Outer Suburbia" is a collection of illustrated stories about, among other things, a water buffalo who hangs out in a vacant lot and gives directions to local kids; stick figures who get beaten up by neighborhood bullies; a giant du­gong that appears on someone's lawn; and the lonely fate of all the unread poetry that people write - it joins a vast "river of waste that flows out of suburbia." This last story, by the way, is presented as a flotilla of random scraps that "through a strange force of attraction" come together, the word "naturally" meeting the phrase "many poems are" and then "immediately destroyed."