81: Lost & Found, by Shaun Tan (2011 hardcover)

I picked up Tan's wordless 2007 picture book entitled The Arrival at a California Association of Teachers of English conference a few years ago.  Beautifully illustrated with collage and multimedia art, Tan does a remarkable job showing the experience of immigration in a manner appealing to its targeted 7th-grade-and-up audience.  When I cam across this collection of 3 shorter pieces, I impulsively bought it and read the entire thing while waiting for a meeting.  Like Tan's earlier works, Lost & Found is a beautiful book: each page contains collage-style artwork with an infinite number of details.  Like earlier work, this too is identified as being for ages nine and up.  I was actually a bit surprised by the low age listing, to be quite honest: the stories share tales of depression, otherness, and conquest/colonization. Then I realized that the art aspect of the book--words included this time--allows for multiple levels of knowing and feeling.  In all, it's big, beautiful, and very thought-provoking for all ages.