The Lost Thing

The Lost Thing is a picture book written by the Australian Author and illustrator Shaun Tan. The book follows a large trash can like living object with tentacles, and a man who is trying to help it find out where it belongs. The man finds the ‘thing’ at the beach, and although it first appeared scary, had a good time with it. From this point the storyline follows the mans trouble of finding out where it fits. After a long search he finds a place full of weird mystical creatures and feels it fits in here. I believe the book is excellently written with illustrations to match.   

The language used within the story is very basic, basically words for a child. Although the storyline does not fit with the age group the words do. This can be confusing but Tan himself has stated that his books are for people of an older year level, personally I’s say in high school. It is set in 1^st person as the main character is describing the story. This technique allows the reader to understand how this character feels, can grasp what understanding he has of the storyline and can follow his narration of events.

The illustrations are very descriptive, similar to a lot of Tan’s other work. As his words are so simple it allows for more of the story to be told. As described by Winch “Pictures do not simply illustrate language, they inflate it into the making of new meaning; they add something different, stimulating an inner imaginative process that in itself is another type of language”.

The narrative follows the traditional structure with the orientation (meeting both characters), complication(trying to find where the thing belongs and what it is) and the conclusion(finding a place for the thing). What is special about this story however that is there is no mention if the ‘thing’ actually does fit in or not? It leaves in open ended towards the viewer. For myself this left me thinking about it constantly after I had finished.

The theme of belonging is dominant within this story and I think this would be a great way to engage high school students if you were ever talking about accepting others or belonging in school. It was a sense of appeal to it, a very relatable book.