The Lost Thing itself I always knew would be red and big, so very noticeable, which makes us wonder why nobody really notices it (this is the key question of the story, for which there is no single answer). Its design was based on a pebble crab, a small round crustacean with claws that hinge vertically, and I combined this with the look of an old-fashioned pot-bellied stove, with a big lid on top instead of a mouth. I did not want the creature to have any anthropomorphic features, especially no face, so it’s eyes are reduced to small dots which emerge from a hole. The main thing was that it looked strange and unrecognisable - which is not always easy. Students select a theme The Lost Thing explores that they would like to construct their own picture book around. These may include (but not limited to) conformity, dystopia/utopia, creativity, individuality, bureaucracy, modern life, art, friendship or belonging. Different teachers may have placed varying degrees of emphasis upon these themes during the study so some guidance to students will be appropriate. 2. Elements of construction The Lost Thing received an Honourable Mention at the Bologna International Book Fair, Italy and an honourable mention at the CBCA Awards. In 2020, The Lost Thing won the Phoenix Award in the US, given twenty years later to a book that did not win a major award at the time of publication. Original illustrations from the book have been exhibited at the Itabashi Art Museum in Tokyo and eslewhere in Japan, Germany, Sweden and the UK. Using these categories, students can identify other elements in the book that could symbolise something greater than the thing itself. Elements of construction: Activity

The following image is Tan’s re-imagining of a famous Australian painting by artist Jeffrey Smart. “ The Cahill Expressway” painting was influential in 1960s Australia. Forty years later Shaun Tan has used a pastiche of this picture to convey a sense of bleakness.

Curriculum

This lesson provides students with the opportunity to develop their literal and inferential comprehension skills with the use of a fictional text. This unit of study includes predicting, discussing and viewing before assessing students’ comprehension abilities. Arts Ideas can also be incorporated into this unit. The joy in this lesson is the students predfictions, impressions and descriptions are so varied it provides evidence to the students how we all interpret differently. This unit could be taught over a week or two weeks, because each time the text is shown something new is seen. Australian Curriculum Links:

tl;dr: We follow the news to seem smart. We follow news for entertainment, treating politics like a kind of sport. But does following news really make you smarter, or do you just seem smarter? Are you following the right amount of news, or is your interest in current events perhaps leaving you without time for the small things in your immediate surrounds? 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. Other artistic influences mentioned by Tan that relate more to the Utopia scene are those of Hieronymus Bosch and the Spanish Surrealists. A simple Google image search of Spanish Surrealists will provide plentiful images to give students a sense of the colour, vibrancy and the often bizarre subject matter of Surrealism; qualities that can also be seen in the Utopia image. One of the most famous works by Bosch is The Garden of Earthly Delights, a triptych depicting the Garden of Eden and Hell on the left and right panels, and the central panel involving people carousing with each other and animal figures in a strange landscape dotted with odd architecture. The link provided here is of a virtual tour of the expansive painting and it needs to be noted that there is adult content which some teachers may find unsuitable for Year 7/8 students. Adaptations A fitting farewell, still funny, acute, and positive in its view of human nature even in its 37th episode. In questo peregrinare notiamo tante cose strane che riusciremmo a vedere tranquillamente se solo non fossimo sempre così impegnati a pensare ai fatti nostri.

This story is set in the near future of dystopian Melbourne, Australia. The story took place on a beach and a city with "really busy" people. It is a gray world with the only colorful things being the lost things. Crew won the CBC Book of the Year: Older Readers for Strange Objects and Angel’s Gate, CBC Honour Book for Memorial (2000), CBC Picture Book of the Year for First Light (1994); CBC Picture Book of the Year for The Watertower (1995). He is also the author of The Viewer and Mama’s Babies, which were CBC Notable Books for 1998 and 1999 respectively. The Lost Diamonds of Killiecrankie was also a notable book in 1996. Essay reviewers

After reading the book together and giving students further time to read it for themselves and perhaps discuss their reactions with peers, distribute about six post-it notes per student. Take each of these questions in turn and allow time for students to write their responses on the post-it notes. The set of resources available here is based on Shaun Tan’s collaboration with Gary Crew in The Viewer. The Scaffold for Reading Visual Images can be easily adapted and used for The Lost Thing. Whatever the intended audience of The Lost Thing, and whatever its moral or meaning, there can be little doubt that the book will provoke the conscience of its reader to be more aware of the human sympathies aroused for those among us who simply ‘don’t belong’.

In the middle of the rope write the statement, “ The Lost Thing has a happy ending” and the words “Yes” and “No” at each end of the rope. Use comprehension strategies analyse information, integrating and linking ideas from a variety of print and digital sources (ACELY1703) Such a discussion could be based in small groups that role-play a production meeting where the change is debated. This incredible book was made into an academy award winning short film. The Australian artist and illustrator, Shaun Tan, is the Midas of the visual world. His innovative illustrations speak volumes. More widely, this could be a story about any child with an unusual worldview who, by social conditioning, is gradually forced into adult conformity. CHARACTER