Author/illustrator Shaun Tan's exquisite graphic novel/picture book hybrid, Hometown, features a girl whose interaction with an unexpected stranger causes her to question where she belongs.
"Here I am," the girl declares. "Gravity keeps me here. Or love, which is kind of the same thing." She lives with her parents and siblings and has "awesome friends" and "about three hundred of these things"--seemingly pets. Although "life is good," she still wonders "if there's more... than this." Then a "big hole [opens] up in the sky" and "that thing" falls out. It's a behemoth, but not "hostile. More like stupid," bumbling in its explorations. A being eventually emerges from what the girl and her friends realize is a ship. "We are human," the creature insists to the girl. "This is not your real home. Those are not your people. You must come with me." The girl runs to her mother, who confirms the being's pronouncements and says her family always "wondered if others might... come looking for [her] one day." Feeling "strange and angry," the girl must decide if she will leave her life for the potential of "more."
Hometown reads like a companion to Tan's groundbreaking The Arrival, contrasting the latter's sepia tones with gorgeous watercolor, colored pencil, and ink luminosity, as if underscoring the joy of family and familiarity. Uniquely imaginative flora and fauna populate Tan's (Cicada) landscapes, and his use of the book's physical form (flipping the illustrations 90-degrees, including a stunning gatefold spread) adds a literal tactile experience to his strangely sensational illustrations. Joyful in its oddness and expressions of togetherness, Hometown offers a comforting balm to unsettled middle-grade hearts. --Terry Hong