'The Arrival' by Shaun Tan

Year Six have enjoyed studying the picture book 'The Arrival' in our English lessons throughout Autumn 1. We developed our writing ability by discussing the importance of fronted adverbials, noun phrases and conjunctions.

The following extracts were written by five of the children:

Once my mum and I had dropped off dad, I was crying into mum’s coat while he was on the train. I heard the train wheels scraping on the track. I peeked out from my mum’s coat: I saw the train get faster and go into the dark tunnel. I waved one last time at dad and he waved back. We were all crying. 

Once I saw him disappear, it felt like all the memories we had were coming back to me even from when I was just a baby. As I was grabbing mum’s hand as tight as I could, I started walking slower and slower, thinking about how we were going to survive without him. When I looked up, I saw the tails that looked like they had knives stabbed through the bottom to the top. I sobbed, “Why couldn’t we go with him?” 

Mum replied, “He can’t have anyone with him otherwise he gets punished!” 

We carried on walking and all the lights died – one after another except for one house. 

 

 

At 4 o’clock sharp, everybody slithered off the creaky plank. The smell of rotting fish filled the air. The untamed wind blew through the mob of inhabitants. It was freezing; the sound of muttering was everywhere. The starless sky was polished with gloomy clouds and there was a nip in the air. Everyone was keen to get some rest. The savage waves were scourging the people’s shivering legs. 

Seconds became minutes, became hours, yet still the line was not moving. Everyone was starving. Everyone lay on the ground and slept. The waves died down. Everything became tranquil.   

 

 

My name’s Edith and this is my story. 

My life was perfect but hard. My trusty rooster woke me at 8:00am every day. I would always have a fresh egg every morning. After I ate, I would go and feed the pig, pick up the horse's poo, feed the horses and all the other jobs. It was hard work, but I loved it. Farm life was amazing: nobody for miles on end. Life was amazing but it soon changed. 

One morning when I woke up, it was raining, so I got my raincoat on and put my wellies on and did the usual, but one thing was odd. I heard gunshots. At first, I just ignored it, thinking it was probably my imagination. 

 

 

Today, I woke up happily. I could smell the pancakes, so I rushed out of bed to go downstairs.  

I went downstairs happily because I love pancakes. When I reached the kitchen and sat down to eat my breakfast, something was off: it was quiet. Something was wrong, so I asked my mum, “Is there something wrong?” My mum was silent. 

I saw a box on the table and my mum and dad were looking down at it, my mum’s hand on top of my dad’s. I felt worried. What was happening? 

 

 

As my mum and I made our way back to the house, I could see lots of people having loads of fun and dancing about with their dads. 

Distraught, I noticed a tail… a threatening tail of an enormous creature. Suddenly, I noticed the creature had spikes as sharp as katanas. 

I realised that now I didn’t have dad to protect me, I had to stay hidden. 

At last, everybody scrambled off the boat nervously as they had to go to war. Darkness lurked upon them. A dense scary atmosphere built around everyone as they stood anxiously waiting for war. 

As they looked around, they could see families joyfully skipping around as if they had just been reunited.