Lost Thing

Product Information

The Lost Thingis a humorous story about a boy who discovers a bizarre-looking creature while out collecting bottle-tops at a beach. Having guessed that it is lost, he tries to find out who owns it, or where it belongs, but the problem is met with indifference by everyone else, who barely notice its presence. Each is unhelpful in their own way; strangers, friends, parents are all unwilling to entertain this uninvited interruption to day-to-day life. In spite of his better judgement, the boy feels sorry for this hapless creature and attempts to find out where it belongs. Watching an interview like this will give students confidence to interpret work in their own way because they hear Tan say he actively removes aspects that would otherwise narrow down possible interpretations. The supplementary prompts below can be used for deeper analysis once the children have had time to formulate their own ideas. The cover

Activity: Find evidence within the images or written text that supports the reading that the lost thing is gentle and vulnerable. (Could any other adjectives apply?) Plot: A boy , still curious due to his youth, discovers an odd creature at the beach, a 'Thing' that appears lost. In this mundane monotonous world of sepia, The Lost Thing, goes by relatively unnoticed. The boy sets out to find the Lost Thing a home.As an artist, I'm interested in what you do when you encounter something that's really, really strange and unfamiliar," he tells NPR, "whether it's with fear or evasion or curiosity and maybe even love is really quite telling." What will become evident from the retrieval chart exercise is that a range of textual elements combine to develop a theme, so that there is a cohesiveness among the elements that can support certain readings more successfully than others.

Il racconto è molto breve, folgorante. Forse troppo. Disegni meravigliosi (come sempre lo sono quelli di questo autore). E il messaggio è altrettanto chiaro e folgorante. Prendere tempo, vedere dove di solito non guardiamo, rallentare, incuriosirsi per tutto quello che c’è di diverso, sforzarsi di aprire l’angolo di visione, anche se impegni, distrazione e falsi obiettivi ce lo impediranno. Creature: Paintings, Drawings, and Reflections is a new collection of images from artist and writer Shaun Tan's best-known works as well as more than 100 illustrations that have never been seen before. The book also includes essays by the artist.Some focus can be given to student responses by drawing their attention to character, theme, plot and so on. It can be useful to make these post-it notes a different colour to the earlier activity to clearly differentiate the before and after responses. Again, all responses should be initialed. The Lost Thing is a humorous story about a boy who discovers a bizarre-looking creature while out collecting bottle-tops at the beach. Having guessed that it is lost, he tries to find out who owns it or where it belongs, but the problem is met with indifference by everyone else, who barely notice its existence. Strangers, friends, parents are all unwilling to entertain this uninvited interruption to day-to-day life. In spite of his own reservations, the boy feels sorry for this hapless creature, and attempts to find out where it belongs. Before viewing the film, students can be asked to come up with particular challenges for the film-makers. For example: