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Dog
Once we were strangers,legs bent the wrong way,rough voices falling to the wind ...But in our hearts we wanted more than this. In our hearts, we knew there was more.'A tour de force.' - The New York Times
46 pages, Kindle Edition
First published October 1, 2020
1 person is currently reading
327 people want to read
About the author
Shaun Tan
72 books2,599 followersShaun Tan (born 1974) is the illustrator and author of award-winning children's books. After freelancing for some years from a studio at Mt. Lawley, Tan relocated to Melbourne, Victoria, in 2007. Tan was the Illustrator in Residence at the University of Melbourne's Department of Language Literacy and Arts Education for two weeks through an annual Fellowship offered by the May Gibbs Children’s Literature Trust. 2009 World Fantasy Award for Best Artist. In 2011, he won his first Oscar in the category Best Short Animated Film for his work The Lost Thing.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 67 reviews
November 24, 2021
2.5 Stars!
The Original version of this appeared in “Tales From The Inner City” so be warned those of you who think that you are getting something new. One of the things I enjoy so much about Tan’s work is that you know he’s going to take you off to visit some interesting places.
This tribute to man’s best friend is certainly a little enigmatic and clearly works along minimalist principles, it is also incredibly short, although not one of his better works this still makes for an interesting enough quick read in between bigger and better books.
December 3, 2020
~ F R O M A M E L I E S B O O K S H E L F ~ (kinda)
This is a lot more mature than the other picture books I was reading to Amelie, so I ended up just showing her the illustrations and reading it to myself and it is a GORGEOUS piece of art. The illustrations are so dark and compelling and tell a story all on their own - the words are just a bonus! Shaun Tan is such an incredibly storyteller and artist!
trigger warnings: loss of a pet.
Thank you Walker Books for sending me a copy for review!
This is a lot more mature than the other picture books I was reading to Amelie, so I ended up just showing her the illustrations and reading it to myself and it is a GORGEOUS piece of art. The illustrations are so dark and compelling and tell a story all on their own - the words are just a bonus! Shaun Tan is such an incredibly storyteller and artist!
trigger warnings: loss of a pet.
Thank you Walker Books for sending me a copy for review!
October 27, 2022
Very short and very sweet. I’ll read anything with a dog in it and this has plenty. A pocket-sized gift book which, through poetry and beautiful, painterly pictures (I
now want prints of!), captures and celebrates
the transhistorical, evolutionary inter-species companionship between human and canine. Absolutely charming; only reason for a knocked-off star is that, had I not bought this for 50p at my local charity shop and paid the £8 it retails for, I might have felt a bit disappointed since this can be read in 5 minutes.
now want prints of!), captures and celebrates
the transhistorical, evolutionary inter-species companionship between human and canine. Absolutely charming; only reason for a knocked-off star is that, had I not bought this for 50p at my local charity shop and paid the £8 it retails for, I might have felt a bit disappointed since this can be read in 5 minutes.
December 30, 2020
Quality Rating: Five Stars
Enjoyment Rating: Four Stars
Enjoyment Rating: Four Stars
May 2, 2021
Beautiful
July 23, 2023
*****Update 1/04/21*****
I gave this to nibling3.7 &Corby Flood girls suck Fergus Crane to nibling4.7 (why yes, I did get their easter presents from my bookshelf). 3 loves dogs & 4 likes longer books. They stole my phone. I got bored and asked "Shall I read Dog?" "Ok, but in your head" "Um no, you will listen & like it" 3 looked up when I said "Dog hugs! Gunna (their new dog) loves hugs" esp cause he's always filthy from dust bathing. He has two inside beds & two outside beds, but sand is better. I agree Gunna. And he's enormous - perfect size for 7y.o. hugs.
*****31/03/21*****
If I was paying attention to the books I buy, then shelve in my Shaun Tan section, then forget all about reading, I would know this is a short story from Tales from the Inner City. All I saw was a book called Dog - I loved it already!
And no, I don't regret adding Dog to my overflowing book shelf wall. I may have regretted not reading the story two years ago, but now I can read it twice in one week. The cover is divine and tactile. How I love some indented text.
There's one line Shaun Tan left out:
My mum has a story of the time she lost me at the shops when I was 18 months. After frantic searching, she found me outside the shops with my arms around a big fluffy white dog.
As well as working with dogs, I still have my arms around every dog I come upon
I gave this to nibling3.7 &
*****31/03/21*****
If I was paying attention to the books I buy, then shelve in my Shaun Tan section, then forget all about reading, I would know this is a short story from Tales from the Inner City. All I saw was a book called Dog - I loved it already!
And no, I don't regret adding Dog to my overflowing book shelf wall. I may have regretted not reading the story two years ago, but now I can read it twice in one week. The cover is divine and tactile. How I love some indented text.
There's one line Shaun Tan left out:
Many days before I brought that stick back, I was rooting through your garbage, finding tasty meals every day. Rotten fish heads! nomnomnom
My mum has a story of the time she lost me at the shops when I was 18 months. After frantic searching, she found me outside the shops with my arms around a big fluffy white dog.
As well as working with dogs, I still have my arms around every dog I come upon
"And just like that
we are walking again."
April 30, 2023
It was a shorty thoughtful read.
January 9, 2024
ENGLISH VERSION BELOW
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Ein Büchlein im Geschenks- beziehungsweise Hosentaschenformat. Ich würde dies weniger als Bilderbuch als eher als Geschenkbuch einordnen.
Es geht um die besondere Beziehung wie sie nur zwischen einem Menschen und einem Hund bestehen kann. Dazu kommen großartige Illustrationen, die mir sehr gut gefallen haben.
Das kleine Büchlein berührt einen - gerade dann, wenn man selbst einen Hund hat.
Der wenige Text wäre gar nicht notwendig, um die Emotionen zu vermitteln, hat jedoch etwas Lyrisches, das sich wunderbar mit den Illustrationen ergänzt und das Buch einfach zu einem sehr persönlichen kleinen Geschenk macht.
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It's a book about the special relationship that can only exist between a human and a dog. There are also great illustrations that I really liked.
The little book touches you - especially if you have a dog yourself.
The little text would not be necessary to convey the emotions, but it has a lyrical quality that complements the illustrations wonderfully and simply makes the book a very personal little gift.
----------------------------
Ein Büchlein im Geschenks- beziehungsweise Hosentaschenformat. Ich würde dies weniger als Bilderbuch als eher als Geschenkbuch einordnen.
Es geht um die besondere Beziehung wie sie nur zwischen einem Menschen und einem Hund bestehen kann. Dazu kommen großartige Illustrationen, die mir sehr gut gefallen haben.
Das kleine Büchlein berührt einen - gerade dann, wenn man selbst einen Hund hat.
Der wenige Text wäre gar nicht notwendig, um die Emotionen zu vermitteln, hat jedoch etwas Lyrisches, das sich wunderbar mit den Illustrationen ergänzt und das Buch einfach zu einem sehr persönlichen kleinen Geschenk macht.
----------------------------
----------------------------
It's a book about the special relationship that can only exist between a human and a dog. There are also great illustrations that I really liked.
The little book touches you - especially if you have a dog yourself.
The little text would not be necessary to convey the emotions, but it has a lyrical quality that complements the illustrations wonderfully and simply makes the book a very personal little gift.
October 15, 2025
Spooky. I don't think I really understood it.
March 16, 2021
Shaun Tan’s thoughtful examination of the world is intriguing, unusual, fascinating. Always worth taking the time.
July 15, 2021
This is a lovely picture book, but I felt like the ebook format really didn't do it justice. As usual Shaun Tan's illustrations are amazing, often very simple but very, very effective. Anyone who has ever owned (or been close to) a dog will appreciate this exploration of the relationship between dogs and their humans.
November 12, 2020
I usually love Shaun Tan, but this one didn't connect with me. I like the idea - examining the enduring relationship between mankind and dogs, but I just didn't connect with the execution.
The book is beautifully presented, but much of the artwork is dark and sparse.
The book is beautifully presented, but much of the artwork is dark and sparse.
September 1, 2022
Gorgeous artwork with light prose exploring the long, long relationship between dogs and humans.
Shaun Tan never, NEVER disappoints with his whimsical, poignant writing, perfectly complemented by the outstanding artwork.
Shaun Tan never, NEVER disappoints with his whimsical, poignant writing, perfectly complemented by the outstanding artwork.
July 15, 2022
A small but beautiful poem/art book, that wonderfully captures the relationship between humans and dogs.
Considering the length, the price point is quite high at £7.99, but I understand full colour glossy pages for the art and the Hardback material makes it more expensive to produce, but I still think it should be a little cheaper.
That minor criticism aside, having just this morning been told that one of my families dogs is to be put down soon, this really brought out my already strong emotions and lay them out as a physical thing to have and hold.
After just the few minutes it took to read I was in tears.
Dog is a wonderful little book that I read at just the right time to appreciate it fully, and it will stick with me for a while yet.
4.5 stars
Considering the length, the price point is quite high at £7.99, but I understand full colour glossy pages for the art and the Hardback material makes it more expensive to produce, but I still think it should be a little cheaper.
That minor criticism aside, having just this morning been told that one of my families dogs is to be put down soon, this really brought out my already strong emotions and lay them out as a physical thing to have and hold.
After just the few minutes it took to read I was in tears.
Dog is a wonderful little book that I read at just the right time to appreciate it fully, and it will stick with me for a while yet.
4.5 stars
January 5, 2026
This is part of Tales of the Inner City. Not sure why it has its own entry.
Shaun Tan Review
5/5 stars
At the start of the year, I began working my way through as much as I could of Shaun Tan’s books. He is an author and artist who writes/illustrates the most fascinating books. Most of his books are picture books or graphic novels, or some combination of speculative stories with art to go along with them. The best way I can describe Shaun Tan’s books is that each book has a theme that it centers around, with surreal art and an equally surreal story to help set the scene.
I’ll give you a brief overview of his books, and maybe one of the stories will catch your eye.
The first story by Shaun Tan I came across was The Lost Thing. It’s about a weird object that gets lost on the beach. This object is probably bigger than a car, and looks like machinery exploded everywhere. The man who stumbles across this object takes it to different places in the city in hopes of finding a place where it belongs. It’s a story about otherness, loneliness, and finding belonging. I knew from the moment I put that book down that I had to read more of his works.
Next, I picked up a few more of his picture books, Cicada, Rules of Summer, Eric, The Red Tree, The Viewer, and the Rabbits. Of these, the one that stuck out to me the most was Eric. Eric is an exchange student from another place, but instead of being a human like his host family, he’s a small black creature that no one has ever seen the likes of before. He does strange things, he’s interested in even stranger things, and he barely communicates with his host family, so they have no idea if he’s having a good time or not. I’ve never been an exchange student, but I’ve worked with a few, and Shaun Tan captured the feelings of being the host perfectly.
After that, I picked up his Tales from the Inner City, which is a much longer book. All of the stories and paintings are set in cities, whether they be sprawling urban landscapes or small suburbias. And they all feature animals in unusual ways. In one story, an entire board room of business people turned into frogs. In another, a pig slowly disappeared, one small bit at a time. There were rivers of fish who flew through the sky, cats that kept multiplying, and a whale that suddenly appeared on someone’s front lawn in the middle of the night.
Like his picture books, these stories were full of depth, no matter how long or short they were in length. I felt like during my reading experience I unlocked the secrets of the universe, but I’m not sure I could explain it if you asked me. The world in Shaun Tan’s writing is a wondrous place, no matter how bland or bleak it seems to us right now. Mundane, everyday things are made to feel marvelous. The experiences in our lives that we completely overlook are examined as if they are the most beautiful kaleidoscope; no matter how you turn it, you always find something new that you never noticed before.
Next up, I took a look at his sculptures that he made for each of the Grimm Fairy Tales, collected in The Singing Bones. Then, I examined his creature design in the aptly titled book: Creature. His final art book is called The Bird King, and serves as more of a sketchbook than a collection of his finished artworks. Not only did his writing make me see the world from a new lens, but his art as well. None of his art is particularly complex or overwhelming with detail. There’s a beauty to the simplicity of his art that makes you look closer at things you had not considered before.
And then, just as I thought I’d found all of his books at the library, I discovered one last book: The Arrival. The Arrival is the story of a man who has left his home behind to live in a new city. Nothing functions in the way he’s used to. He has to learn a new language, make new friends, and navigate the intricacies of a new job, all while feeling out of place and lonely, as he had to leave his family behind. His one comfort in all the unfamiliar experiences is the reptilian pet that decides to call his apartment home. There’s not a single word spoken throughout this entire graphic novel—aside from a few short words in a foreign language, spoken and written through strange symbols—which only helps to accentuate the out of place feeling. The Arrival has won and been nominated for more awards than I can even begin to count, and I can see why. It just so happened that I stumbled across it last, but I’m really glad I did, as it served as the perfect bookend to his work.
Every once in a while, I happen across a book that makes me feel the way that Shaun Tan’s books did, but it’s usually a fleeting feeling. It’s rare to find more than a chapter or two in any book that captures these exact emotions. I don’t know if it’s because this is a hard feeling to bottle up, or because very few people are writing like this. Either way, I am so glad that I found his books. I highly recommend at the very least giving The Arrival a try, because that is in my opinion his best story overall. And if you like it, there are so many more books you can read from there.
Have a nice day/night everyone!
Shaun Tan Review
5/5 stars
At the start of the year, I began working my way through as much as I could of Shaun Tan’s books. He is an author and artist who writes/illustrates the most fascinating books. Most of his books are picture books or graphic novels, or some combination of speculative stories with art to go along with them. The best way I can describe Shaun Tan’s books is that each book has a theme that it centers around, with surreal art and an equally surreal story to help set the scene.
I’ll give you a brief overview of his books, and maybe one of the stories will catch your eye.
The first story by Shaun Tan I came across was The Lost Thing. It’s about a weird object that gets lost on the beach. This object is probably bigger than a car, and looks like machinery exploded everywhere. The man who stumbles across this object takes it to different places in the city in hopes of finding a place where it belongs. It’s a story about otherness, loneliness, and finding belonging. I knew from the moment I put that book down that I had to read more of his works.
Next, I picked up a few more of his picture books, Cicada, Rules of Summer, Eric, The Red Tree, The Viewer, and the Rabbits. Of these, the one that stuck out to me the most was Eric. Eric is an exchange student from another place, but instead of being a human like his host family, he’s a small black creature that no one has ever seen the likes of before. He does strange things, he’s interested in even stranger things, and he barely communicates with his host family, so they have no idea if he’s having a good time or not. I’ve never been an exchange student, but I’ve worked with a few, and Shaun Tan captured the feelings of being the host perfectly.
After that, I picked up his Tales from the Inner City, which is a much longer book. All of the stories and paintings are set in cities, whether they be sprawling urban landscapes or small suburbias. And they all feature animals in unusual ways. In one story, an entire board room of business people turned into frogs. In another, a pig slowly disappeared, one small bit at a time. There were rivers of fish who flew through the sky, cats that kept multiplying, and a whale that suddenly appeared on someone’s front lawn in the middle of the night.
Like his picture books, these stories were full of depth, no matter how long or short they were in length. I felt like during my reading experience I unlocked the secrets of the universe, but I’m not sure I could explain it if you asked me. The world in Shaun Tan’s writing is a wondrous place, no matter how bland or bleak it seems to us right now. Mundane, everyday things are made to feel marvelous. The experiences in our lives that we completely overlook are examined as if they are the most beautiful kaleidoscope; no matter how you turn it, you always find something new that you never noticed before.
Next up, I took a look at his sculptures that he made for each of the Grimm Fairy Tales, collected in The Singing Bones. Then, I examined his creature design in the aptly titled book: Creature. His final art book is called The Bird King, and serves as more of a sketchbook than a collection of his finished artworks. Not only did his writing make me see the world from a new lens, but his art as well. None of his art is particularly complex or overwhelming with detail. There’s a beauty to the simplicity of his art that makes you look closer at things you had not considered before.
And then, just as I thought I’d found all of his books at the library, I discovered one last book: The Arrival. The Arrival is the story of a man who has left his home behind to live in a new city. Nothing functions in the way he’s used to. He has to learn a new language, make new friends, and navigate the intricacies of a new job, all while feeling out of place and lonely, as he had to leave his family behind. His one comfort in all the unfamiliar experiences is the reptilian pet that decides to call his apartment home. There’s not a single word spoken throughout this entire graphic novel—aside from a few short words in a foreign language, spoken and written through strange symbols—which only helps to accentuate the out of place feeling. The Arrival has won and been nominated for more awards than I can even begin to count, and I can see why. It just so happened that I stumbled across it last, but I’m really glad I did, as it served as the perfect bookend to his work.
Every once in a while, I happen across a book that makes me feel the way that Shaun Tan’s books did, but it’s usually a fleeting feeling. It’s rare to find more than a chapter or two in any book that captures these exact emotions. I don’t know if it’s because this is a hard feeling to bottle up, or because very few people are writing like this. Either way, I am so glad that I found his books. I highly recommend at the very least giving The Arrival a try, because that is in my opinion his best story overall. And if you like it, there are so many more books you can read from there.
Have a nice day/night everyone!
November 22, 2021
Oh... that's fine I didn't need my soul...
January 28, 2022
Eric has my whole heart and while I loved Dog it didn’t quite hit the same as Eric. It’s still a wonderful little book and I’m so in love with Tan and everything he’s making ❤️
December 25, 2022
Ok so I read this as part of the "Tales From The Inner City" collection but wanted to talk about this tale specifically because wow it made me cry. So much. This is such a loving tribute to one of man's best companions, and although I've never had a dog myself, you could tell how much Shaun Tan holds so much affection for this species. So heartrending and tender, and captures so well the story of the friendship between man and dog that transcends lifetimes.
October 16, 2020
Shaun Tan’s ability to convey such a strong sense of character development through his artwork is phenomenal. Dog explores the relationship between a person and their pet across a range of landscapes and phases of life. This book lives up to the outstanding quality that I expected when I saw Tan’s name on the cover. Exquisite.
January 27, 2021
I have been interested in the relationship between people and dogs since my days as a zoology student. (My Masters Thesis was about Guide Dogs for the Blind.) And being a children's author nowadays, I picked up this book with extra interest.
Firstly, it's a beautiful volume. Secondly, I couldn't do this book justice with a description. Like Meg McKinlay's recent How to Make a Bird, Dog is deceptively simple yet deeply profound. It pulled at my heart strings and left me wanting to actually hug the book...
and my dog.
Lovely poetry (scientifically accurate too!) and gorgeous illustrations.
Spend time with this book and you'll likely be glad you did. It's not a five-minute read-to-your-kids-then-forget-it book.
PS Shaun Tan's books are not strictly children's books. They are everyone's books. (But I think many children's books are everyone's books.)
Firstly, it's a beautiful volume. Secondly, I couldn't do this book justice with a description. Like Meg McKinlay's recent How to Make a Bird, Dog is deceptively simple yet deeply profound. It pulled at my heart strings and left me wanting to actually hug the book...
and my dog.
Lovely poetry (scientifically accurate too!) and gorgeous illustrations.
Spend time with this book and you'll likely be glad you did. It's not a five-minute read-to-your-kids-then-forget-it book.
PS Shaun Tan's books are not strictly children's books. They are everyone's books. (But I think many children's books are everyone's books.)
January 3, 2021
A short poem which tells of the bond and relationship between a dogs and humans. Accompanied by a set of perfect illustrations. The perfect gift for anyone who loves dogs.
February 18, 2021
A little book that says so much.
December 21, 2020
Wonderful
A beautiful picture book that captures how humans are bonded with dogs over time. The pictures are beautiful and capture the bond not only over the centuries but in various different locations. While Shaun Tan was drilled into me at uni, it was nice to pick up one of his books by choice and what better topic than that of Dogs? I adore my own puppy and so this is a perfect short read for you dog lovers and a great picture book for children.
Thank you so much again Allen & Unwin for sending me this copy for review.
I can’t wait to use this for stimulus in a classroom setting!
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
A beautiful picture book that captures how humans are bonded with dogs over time. The pictures are beautiful and capture the bond not only over the centuries but in various different locations. While Shaun Tan was drilled into me at uni, it was nice to pick up one of his books by choice and what better topic than that of Dogs? I adore my own puppy and so this is a perfect short read for you dog lovers and a great picture book for children.
Thank you so much again Allen & Unwin for sending me this copy for review.
I can’t wait to use this for stimulus in a classroom setting!
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
July 22, 2025
This book is incredibly short, and in the same way, incredibly good. I have never read poetry like this, but it is beautiful and now that I have, I must have more of it. "When I ran, you ran. / When you called, I answered. / Together we chased away all loneliness and fear, / and saw everything happen that was ever / going to happen, / every beauty and terror, every rise and fall." This poem about the connected history of human and dogs is amazing and intimate, and the illustrations of the progression of said relationship are spectacular.
November 12, 2021
Like The Red Tree, this is really an adult book. My son couldn’t understand why if the book was celebrating dogs, the pictures were all so gloomy.
Adults seem to adore Shaun Tan, although I’m not one of them. His illustrations are beautiful, but bleak, they are not for children.
I’m not a proponent of reading miserable books to children. There are more nuanced texts for children that cover serious material without being so dark.
Adults seem to adore Shaun Tan, although I’m not one of them. His illustrations are beautiful, but bleak, they are not for children.
I’m not a proponent of reading miserable books to children. There are more nuanced texts for children that cover serious material without being so dark.
January 16, 2023
I randomly found this book on fnac and found it interesting. It was a book that calmed me down, a very beautiful book, both in the illustration and in the text. It's a small book that you can read in 2 minutes and I bought it because I thought it could become my comfort book and I was right. I went to research more about shaun tan's art and I'm interested in having more contact with his art because he draws really beautiful things.
September 4, 2021
Such a sweet little book with lovely illustrations. I read it first thing this morning as I opened the bookstore and got teary-eyed thinking about how lucky we are to have our pups in our lives.
This would make a really nice little gift for any dog lover or someone who (it's hard to write this) has lost a dog they were very close to. It's such a special relationship!
This would make a really nice little gift for any dog lover or someone who (it's hard to write this) has lost a dog they were very close to. It's such a special relationship!
February 1, 2023
This is so simple yet so incredibly intelligent. I have two dogs of my own, and the importance of them being in my life can never be fully explained. How just a picture can make me tear up so quickly, just a person and a dog turned to each other, is a testament to Tan's art. If you're a dog lover, you should own this book.
November 13, 2020
I was looking for a gift for my daughter’s friend who sadly lost their dog to cancer. I am so glad I came across this. This beautifully illustrated book made me cry and was both heartwarming and comforting to our friends.
March 4, 2021
This book is about the relationship between dog and human. It's a Shaun Tan's book so the illustration are impeccable as always.
I read the ebook version and I'm not sure if the layout was correct as there were stretch of many pages where there were no text, just illustrations.
I read the ebook version and I'm not sure if the layout was correct as there were stretch of many pages where there were no text, just illustrations.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 67 reviews