image of person or book cover 3818487934798379645.jpg
This image has been sourced from online.
y separately published work icon The Lost Thing single work   picture book   children's  
Issue Details: First known date: 2000... 2000 The Lost Thing
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'A boy discovers a bizarre looking creature while out collecting bottle tops at the beach. Realising it is lost, he tries to find out who owns it or where it belongs, but is met with indifference from everyone else, who barely notice its presence, each unwilling to entertain this uninvited interruption to their day to day lives. For reasons he does not explain, the boy empathises with the creature, and sets out to find a 'place' for it.'
(Source: The Lost Thing website)

Exhibitions

8875784
8857854

Adaptations

The Lost Thing Shaun Tan , Greg Lissaman , 2004 single work drama children's
form y separately published work icon The Lost Thing Shaun Tan , ( dir. Andrew Ruhemann et. al. )agent Melbourne : Passion Pictures Australia , 2010 Z1700980 2010 single work film/TV fantasy

'A boy discovers a bizarre looking creature while out collecting bottle tops at the beach. Realising it is lost, he tries to find out who owns it or where it belongs, but is met with indifference from everyone else, who barely notice its presence, each unwilling to entertain this uninvited interruption to their day to day lives. For reasons he does not explain, the boy empathises with the creature, and sets out to find a "place' for it".'

Source: The Lost Thing website, http://www.thelostthing.com/

Sighted: 21/06/2010

Reading Australia

Reading Australia

This work has Reading Australia teaching resources.

Unit Suitable For

AC: Year 7/8 (NSW Stage 4)

Themes

art, belonging, bureaucracy, conformity, creativity, dystopia, friendship, individuality, modern society, Sustainability, utopia

General Capabilities

Critical and creative thinking, Ethical understanding, Information and communication technology, Intercultural understanding, Literacy, Personal and social

Teaching Resources

Teaching Resources

This work has teaching resources.

Teachers' notes via publisher's website.

Notes

  • Included in the 2001 White Ravens Catalogue compiled by the International Youth Library in Munich, Germany. Special mention.
  • This is affiliated with Dr Laurel Cohn's Picture Book Diet because it contains representations of food and/or food practices.

    Food depiction
    • Incidental
    Food types
    • Discretionary foods
    • High fat foods
    • High salt foods
    • Processed foods
    Food practices
    • Eating in - snack
    Gender n/a
    Signage n/a
    Positive/negative value n/a
    Food as sense of place
    • Domestic
    • Normalising the fantastical
    Setting
    • Domestic interior
    • Urban landscape
    Food as social cohesion n/a
    Food as cultural identity n/a
    Food as character identity n/a
    Food as language n/a

Affiliation Notes

  • This work is affiliated with the AustLit subset Asian-Australian Children's Literature and Publishing because it has been translated into Korean, Chinese and Japanese.

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

    • Port Melbourne, South Melbourne - Port Melbourne area, Melbourne - Inner South, Melbourne, Victoria,: Lothian , 2000 .
      image of person or book cover 3818487934798379645.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: 1 v. (unpaged)p.
      Description: col. illus.
      ISBN: 0734400748
    • Port Melbourne, South Melbourne - Port Melbourne area, Melbourne - Inner South, Melbourne, Victoria,: Lothian , 2001 .
      image of person or book cover 8348809848475353355.jpg
      Image courtesy of publisher's website.
      Extent: 32p.
      Edition info: 1st paperback ed.
      Description: col. illus.
      Reprinted: 2008 , 2010 , 2013
      ISBN: 0734403887, 9780734411389
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon Lost and Found Shaun Tan , John Marsden , Shaun Tan (illustrator), New York (City) : Arthur A. Levine Books , 2011 Z1764283 2011 selected work picture book These three short stories focus on loss and despair to explore how we lose and find what matters most to us: a girl finds a bright spot in a dark world, a boy leads a strange, lost being home, and a group of peaceful creatures loses its home to cruel invaders.
    New York (City) : Arthur A. Levine Books , 2011
Alternative title: 잃어버린 것
Transliterated title: Irŏbŏrin kŏt
Language: Korean
    • Seoul,
      c
      South Korea,
      c
      Korea, East Asia, South and East Asia, Asia,
      :
      Sa Kyejŏl ,
      2002 .
      image of person or book cover 9212701162806430192.jpg
      Image courtesy of publisher's website.
      Extent: 32p.
      Description: illus.
      ISBN: 9788971969106, 8971969105

Other Formats

  • Also braille, sound recording.

Works about this Work

Art, Adaptation, and the Antipodean in Shaun Tan’s The Lost Thing Erica Hateley , 2017 single work criticism
— Appears in: More Words about Pictures Current Research on Picturebooks and Visual/Verbal Texts for Young People 2017; (p. 44-62)

'Shaun Tan is an eminent figure of Australian children's literature in the twenty-first century. Tan's international success has been marked commercially by the proliferation of international editions and translations of his picture books and critically by the proliferation of awards, including an Academy Award for the animated short film adaptation of The Lost Thing, and in 2011 the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award, which is given for sustained aesthetic and humanist achievement in children's literature. In 1959, a figurative expressionist group calling themselves The Antipodeans held an exhibition in Melbourne, the catalogue for which saw the first publication of "The Antipodean Manifesto". This section of the Manifesto was contributed by John Brack, and Brack's identity as a figurative expressionist and as an artist of adaptation mark his work in particular as significant for a full understanding of The Lost Thing.'

Using Shaun Tan's Work to Foster Multiliteracies in 21st-Century Classrooms Ashley Dallacqua , Sara Kersten, , Mindi Rhoades , 2015 single work criticism
— Appears in: The Reading Teacher , October vol. 69 no. 2 2015; (p. 207-217)
'This paper explores work in multimodality and design as it relates to 21st century multiliteracies. After outlining the concept of a multiliteracies pedagogy, this paper describes multimodality and multimodal texts. Moving from the theoretical to the practical, this paper primarily explores selected multimodal works of Shaun Tan and the opportunities they open to bring a multiliteracies pedagogy to classrooms. It provides approachable pedagogical strategies that can be successful in a variety of classrooms. We conclude that Tan's work ultimately acts as an accessible resource for educators striving to employ multiliteracies practices and bring multimodal texts into their classrooms.' (Publication abstract)
Music, Multiliteracies and Multimodality : Exploring the Book and Movie Versions of Shaun Tan's 'The Lost Thing' Georgina Barton , Len Unsworth , 2014 single work criticism
— Appears in: Australian Journal of Language and Literacy , February vol. 37 no. 1 2014; (p. 3-20)

Well-known stories in established and contemporary literature for children are increasingly becoming available in various moving image media versions as well as in traditional book formats. Classroom exploration of the same story in different narrative formats has addressed the impact on meaning-making of similarities and differences in language and image across versions. What has received very little attention however, is the role of music in conjunction with image and language in the construction of the potentially different interpretive possibilities of the multiple versions of ostensibly the same story. This paper discusses the nature and role of music, images and language in the book and movie versions of Shaun Tan’s story of The Lost Thing, drawing attention to the role of music in highlighting key interpretive differences deriving from subtle variation in the use of image and language in the two story versions. Implications for students’ multimodal text creation and interpretation in the context of the new Australian Curriculum: English are briefly noted. [Author's abstract]

Investigating Point of View in Picture Books and Animated Movie Adaptations Len Unsworth , 2014 single work criticism
— Appears in: Picture Books and Beyond 2014; (p. 92-107)

Today’s children frequently experience multiple versions of literary narratives as more and more picture books appear also as animated movies and i-pad/tablet apps. In some cases the animated versions are very different from the books but in other cases the language and the visual character representations maintain the essential features of the book versions. Works such as these afford the opportunity to appreciate how quite subtle changes in depiction from static to moving image can effect significant shifts in the interpretive possibilities. This kind of interpretive context is addressed directly in the Australian Curriculum: English, which indicates, for example, that year four and five students should be examining variation in visual point view and its impact on audiences. This chapter firstly examines the knowledge about the meaning-making resources of still and moving images that is necessary to negotiate these kinds of curriculum expectations. This is illustrated through a comparative analysis of corresponding segments of three well-known picture books.

Disability and Belonging in Shaun Tan's The Lost Thing Nicole Markotić , 2014 single work criticism
— Appears in: Jeunesse : Young People, Texts, Culture , Winter vol. 6 no. 2 2014;

'This essay looks at images of disability in Shaun Tan’s The Lost Thing. The character of the lost thing, lost inside a world that clearly will not let it belong, represents the unrepresentable, while the boy narrator displays subtle depictions of cognitive difference. The lost thing’s body is incomprehensible for the very reason that it is so unlike the bodies of others. Although it may be tempting to read the boy narrator as dispassionate or as too emotionally detached because of his involvement with this uniform world, the protagonist gladly assists his new friend. As a different kind of thinker, the boy also does not quite fit in his world, even as he is not entirely separate from it.'

Source: Abstract.

[Review] The Lost Thing Graham Davey , 2000 single work review
— Appears in: Reading Time : The Journal of the Children's Book Council of Australia , November vol. 44 no. 4 2000; (p. 21)

— Review of The Lost Thing Shaun Tan , 2000 single work picture book
[Review] The Lost Thing Lyn Linning , 2000 single work review
— Appears in: Magpies : Talking About Books for Children , September vol. 15 no. 4 2000; (p. 30-31)

— Review of The Lost Thing Shaun Tan , 2000 single work picture book
[Review] The Lost Thing Anne Davies , 2000 single work review
— Appears in: Fiction Focus : New Titles for Teenagers , vol. 14 no. 3 2000; (p. 37)

— Review of The Lost Thing Shaun Tan , 2000 single work picture book
Surreal Humour Margaret Dunkle , 2000 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , October no. 225 2000; (p. 58-59)

— Review of The Lost Thing Shaun Tan , 2000 single work picture book ; Inside Mary Elizabeth's House Pamela Allen , 2000 single work picture book ; Pannikin and Pinta Colin Thiele , 2000 single work picture book ; Snow Bear Liliana Stafford , 2000 single work picture book
Top Reads for Kids Cindy Lord , 2001 single work review
— Appears in: The Courier-Mail , 11 August 2001; (p. 6)

— Review of The Singing Hat Tohby Riddle , 2000 single work picture book ; A is for Aunty Elaine Russell , 2000 single work picture book ; Fox Margaret Wild , 2000 single work picture book ; Faust's Party Matt Ottley , 2000 single work picture book ; Rain Dance Cathy Applegate , 2000 single work picture book ; The Lost Thing Shaun Tan , 2000 single work picture book
The Children's Book Council of Australia Annual Awards 2001 2001 single work column
— Appears in: Reading Time : The Journal of the Children's Book Council of Australia , August vol. 45 no. 3 2001; (p. 2-12)
Images of Refuge with Deep Imprint Penelope Davie , 2006 single work column
— Appears in: The Courier-Mail , 28 - 29 October 2006; (p. 34)
Trash Aesthetics and Utopian Memory: The Tip at the End of the Street and The Lost Thing Kerry Mallan , 2005 single work criticism
— Appears in: Bookbird , vol. 43 no. 1 2005; (p. 28-34)
Dogboys and Lost Things, or, Anchoring a Floating Signifier : Race and Critical Multiculturalism Debra Dudek , 2006 single work criticism
— Appears in: Ariel , October vol. 37 no. 4 2006; (p. 1-20) Australian Made : A Multicultural Reader 2010; (p. 97-118)
'In her 2004 book on multiculturalism, Haunted Nations: The Colonial Dimensions of Multiculturalisms, Sneja Gunew persistently refers to the term multiculturalism as a floating signifier. (1) While this notion of a floating signifier is helpful because it acknowledges different ways in which multiculturalism functions in specific contexts, it may be unhelpful when it floats so much as to lose any signification. While I identify myself as a postmodernist and, therefore, regularly resist universalist terminology, I find myself in a peculiar position of wanting to put limits on the term multiculturalism. (2) If multiculturalism can mean anything, then why is it important to analyze children's literature through the lens of multiculturalism, I wonder.' - Author's abstract
Desiring Perception : Finding Utopian Impulses in Shaun Tan's The Lost Thing Debra Dudek , 2005 single work criticism
— Appears in: Papers : Explorations into Children's Literature , December vol. 15 no. 2 2005; (p. 58-66)
In this paper, Dudek argues that uptopian impulses can be found within The Lost Thing via the characters of the child, the artist, and the hybrid custodian, all of whom act as figures of resistance and hope in a dystopian world ruled by rigid and repetitive empirical discourses.
Last amended 30 Nov 2023 10:39:30
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