the rabbits, by john marsden and shaun tan

Since the conception of bedtimeforlj I have wanted to read this book for you, lj, but have felt inhibited, because I did not think that my words alone would do this book justice. My love for this book transcends its words: each picture is beautiful, intricate, full of a hundred different meanings. Shaun Tan is my favourite illustrator in the world, and I can only hope that one day I can hang one of his prints upon my wall.

This post was sort of prompted by this one by geeklite.

Here, for your reading and listening, is The Rabbits, a metaphor for colonisation and our past, words by John Marsden, illustrations by Shaun Tan, read for you this evening by me. Forgive the average photography, but I feel that awkward photographs are better than no illustrations at all, and far, far greater than flattening my book in order to scan it.

I would like to rerecord this, but I have been trying to make this post for quite literally months, so I'm going to make it now and run.





( the rabbits )

You can purchase The Rabbits from Amazon here; Shaun Tan's website is here; John Marsden's is here, though he is not as awesome as Shaun Tan.