A wordless graphic novel that seems to tell the story of an immigrant arriving on Ellis Island, except that this new country is like no place we’ve ever seen before.  Giant crockery dominates the landscape, trollies fly, and people keep strange animal hybrids for pets.  And yet the people in this alien landscape are familiar.  The Arrival is warm and human in the same way that impressed me so much with The Graveyard Book.  To use too many words to describe it would disturb its Zen-like quality; instead, see these excerpts for yourself.

The Arrival has won the New South Wales Premier Literary Awards’ “Book of the Year” prize and the Children’s Book Council of Australia “Picture Book of the Year” award.