Shaun Tan facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Shaun Tan
Shaun Tan in 2011
Born	(1974-01-15) January 15, 1974 (age 51) Fremantle, Western Australia, Australia
Nationality	Australian
Notable work	The Red Tree The Lost Thing The Arrival Cicada

Shaun Tan was born on January 15, 1974. He is an Australian artist, writer, and filmmaker. He won an Academy Award for The Lost Thing. This was a 2011 animated short film. It was based on his 2000 picture book. He wrote and illustrated that book. He also wrote and illustrated other famous books. These include The Red Tree (2001) and The Arrival (2006).

Shaun Tan was born in Fremantle, Australia. He grew up in Perth. In 2006, his book The Arrival won the Book of the Year prize. This was part of the New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards. It also won the 2007 Children's Book Council of Australia Picture Book of the Year award. In 2011, he won the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award. This is a very big prize in children's literature.

About Shaun Tan

Early Life and Art

Shaun Tan was born in Fremantle, Western Australia. His father was from Malaysia, and his mother was Australian. He grew up in the northern suburbs of Perth.

As a boy, Shaun loved drawing. He illustrated poems and stories. He also drew dinosaurs, robots, and spaceships. At school, people knew him as a very good artist. When he was eleven, he liked The Twilight Zone TV show. He also enjoyed books with similar themes. He says Ray Bradbury was a favorite writer then. These stories made Shaun want to write his own short stories. His first illustration was in an Australian magazine. It was called Aurealis in 1990. He was sixteen years old.

Becoming an Illustrator

Shaun Tan enjoyed many subjects in high school. These included chemistry, physics, history, and English. He also liked art. He wasn't sure what he wanted to do for a career. He almost studied to become a geneticist.

He went to the University of Western Australia. There he studied Fine Arts, English Literature, and History. While studying, he decided to become an artist. He graduated in 1995 with a Bachelor of Arts degree.

How Shaun Tan Works

Shaun Tan works slowly. He changes his work many times. He often draws sketches with a graphite pencil. He then copies these sketches many times. He adds or removes parts from them. Sometimes he uses scissors to cut and paste parts.

He often uses different materials in his final art. These can include glass, metal, or cuttings from other books. He is interested in feelings of loss and being alone. He believes children understand ideas about fairness very well. He feels like a "translator" of ideas. He is happy when his work is made into films or music.

What Inspires Him

Shaun Tan gets ideas from many places. He says he is "pretty omnivorous" about his influences. This means he takes ideas from many different things. Some of his inspirations are very clear. For example, in The Lost Thing, he uses ideas from famous artworks. Many other influences are more hidden. Some of his ideas come from different ways of thinking.

Awards and Recognition

Shaun Tan has won many awards for his work. He won an Academy Award in 2011. This was for The Lost Thing, an animated short film. He also won the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award in 2011. This is the biggest prize for children's literature.

He has won many Ditmar Awards for his artwork. He also won the Children's Book Council of Australia Picture Book of the Year award several times. These were for books like The Rabbits and The Arrival. His book Tales from the Inner City won the Kate Greenaway Medal in 2020.

Adaptations of His Work

Many of Shaun Tan's books have been turned into other things. These include plays, music, and films.

• The Red Tree became a play. It also became a music performance. The Australian Chamber Orchestra performed it.
• The Arrival had images from the book shown during orchestra performances. It was also made into a stage play.
• The Lost Thing was made into an Oscar-winning animated short film. It also inspired an album by the band Lo-Tel. A youth theatre company made it into a play too.
• The Rabbits was made into an opera. It was performed at the 2015 Perth International Arts Festival.

Shaun Tan's Books

As Illustrator Only

Shaun Tan has illustrated books written by other authors.

• The Pipe, by James Moloney (1996)
• The Stray Cat, by Steven Paulsen (1996)
• The Viewer, written by Gary Crew (1997)
• The Rabbits, written by John Marsden (1998)
• Memorial, written by Gary Crew (1999)

As Author and Illustrator

Shaun Tan has written and illustrated many of his own books.

• The Playground (1997)
• The Lost Thing (2000)
• The Red Tree (2001)
• The Arrival (2006)
• Tales from Outer Suburbia (2008)
• Rules of Summer (2013)
• Cicada (2018)
• Tales from the Inner City (2018)
• Dog (2020)
• Eric (2020)
• Creature (2022)

See also

In Spanish: Shaun Tan para niños