Rules of Summer

Locations
Call Number: E TAN, Kids Book / Picture Books / Family / Tan, Shaun
On Shelf At: Downtown Library

Location & Checkout Length	Call Number	Checkout Length	Item Status
Downtown Kids Books 4-week checkout	E TAN	4-week checkout	On Shelf
Downtown Kids Books 4-week checkout	E TAN	4-week checkout	On Shelf
Malletts Kids Books 4-week checkout	Kids Book / Picture Books / Family / Tan, Shaun	4-week checkout	Due 05-19-2024
Westgate Kids Books 4-week checkout	Kids Book / Picture Books / Family / Tan, Shaun	4-week checkout	Due 05-18-2024

Two boys explain the occasionally mysterious "rules" they learned over the summer, like never eat the last olive at a party, never ruin a perfect plan, and never give your keys to a stranger. This is a deceptively simple story about two boys, one older and one younger, and the kind of rules that might govern any relationship between close friends or siblings. Rules that are often so strange or arbitrary, they seem impossible to understand from the outside. Yet through each exquisite illustration of this nearly wordless narrative, we can enjoy wandering around an emotional landscape that is oddly familiar to us all. The author/illustrator draws upon his own personal experiences with a surreal snapshot of fishing adventures with his older brother, leaving a sock on the clothes line, and buildings inspired by Brunswick and greater Melbourne. As you venture deep into the story, these poetic images become darker, more mysterious and unsettling, drawing towards a redemptive ending that affirms the depth of true friendship, a bond that is equally wonderful and inexplicable.Moments of humour, surreal fantasy, and the sometimes devastating ways we interact with the people we love the most, are presented in the author's typical thought-provoking style.

REVIEWS & SUMMARIES

School Library Journal Review
Booklist Review
Publishers Weekly Review
Summary / Annotation
Fiction Profile
Author Notes

COMMUNITY REVIEWS

Not sweet and light submitted by camelsamba on August 27, 2014, 11:30pm The summary up there in "additional details" has more words that this entire book (and likely so will my review). The story is somewhat subtle - you get a sense of what the brothers are doing together by reading their "rules". The real power is in the illustrations, as is often the case in Shaun Tan's works. At the same time, this would not be good bedtime reading for sensitive kids because illustrations and rules are somewhat stark and disturbing early on. Brotherly love does come to the rescue in the end, though.

Fabulously complex illustrations! submitted by eileenw on June 17, 2017, 2:19pm Done in a painterly style, the illustrations are deep, surreal, and gorgeous. The illustrations give context to the simple "rules" laid out by the two characters. Delightfully dark and twisty, this book will appeal to fans of old fairy tales and folklore -- the kind of tales that tapped into the root of the human psyche, fears, and the wonderous possibilites of the unknown, not so much for those who are fans only of the Disney versions of fairy tales.