Shaun Tan grew up in Perth and works as an artist, writer and film-maker in Melbourne, best known for illustrated books that deal with social, political and historical subjects through dream-like imagery. The Rabbits, The Red Tree, Tales from Outer Suburbia and the graphic novel The Arrival have been widely translated throughout the world and enjoyed by readers of all ages. Shaun has also worked as a theatre designer, a concept artist for Pixar and won an Academy Award for the short animated film The Lost Thing. In 2011 he received the prestigious Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award in Sweden, in recognition of his services to literature for young people. His most recent books are Rules of Summer and The Singing Bones.
Walker Studio is an imprint aiming to produce "books for book
lovers" and this, its launch title, certainly encapsulates that.
Acclaimed artist Shaun Tann has created meticulously staged
sculptural works of 75 Grimms fairytales, each photographed and
accompanied by an excerpt from the story. The result is just
stunning: hypnotic, dreamlike images that capture the essence of
these timeless tales. * The Bookseller *
A nightmarish mix of cute and gruesome * The Guardian *
[...]a mesmerizing art book revealing Grimms' Fairy Tales in
sculptural form[...] * theartcollector.org *
At first, The Singing Bones is a book to look at and be bewildered,
but the more it is studied, the more fascinating this lesson
becomes in not accepting the traditional, but extending its
meaning, without losing the original. It is both intriguing and
interesting. * Newbury Weekly News *
One of my absolute favourite books which takes the dark side of
fairy tales is The singing Bones by Shaun Tan, which is a
collection of photographs of clay sculptures made by Tan and
inspired by Grimm's fairy tales, of interest to anybody who cares
about art, or sculpture, or fairy tale, or indeed horror. *
Nicolette Jones, The Sunday Times *
Genius is extremely rare, immediately recognisable, and very
humbling. Shaun Tan's gloriously original and immensely physical
maquette interpretations of Grimm, engaging not with individuals
but with bedrock characteristics, have much more affinity to
prehistoric clay carvings than to any contemporary artist, and
they're by turns comic, alarming, beautiful, macabre, utterly
disarming and deeply moving. Each dramatically-lit image is
accompanied by a short passage from the matching tale, while the
endnotes summarise each tale in the book. Foreword by Neil
Gaiman... Introduction by Jack Zipes... the sheer thought and love
that has been put into every aspect of this superb,
cross-disciplinary enterprise makes it not only my book of the year
but of the decade. * Books for Keeps *
"The Singing Bones is a very rich resource: a treasure chest of
entertaining stories, an inspiration for art work, a prompt for
discussions and research, a handsome beautifully designed book, and
above all an exemplar of outstanding creativity." * The School
Librarian *
"stunning" * Books for Keeps *
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