Tales from Outer Suburbia by Shaun Tan

In Tales from Outer Suburbia, the reader will find a collection of short stories about suburban living. But, its not any suburban living that any one of us will find familiar. Shaun Tan writes about the odd, the strange, or just plain weird. I doubt that my imagination would come up with anything this inventive, even if I had an infinite amount of time to plan it.

These stories and pictures remind me of something you might find in a Chris Van Allsburg picture book -- something that's so strange that you can't get it out of your mind. Before I knew it, I was adding on to the story, thinking up 'what if' scenarios, or wondering where on Earth that story idea came from. This collection is short, less than 100 pages with beautiful illustrations. It's a must read for those that pride themselves on finding the 'different' stories, the gems that can be found by looking on shelves other than the bestseller shelves. I thoroughly enjoyed this collection and would love to use one of the stories with a class. I give it a 'B.'