1. Alienation
2. Allegory
3. Anthropomorphism
4. Belonging
5. Bullying
6. Discrimination
7. Employment
8. Freedom
9. Human rights
10. Insects
11. Intolerance
12. Literary techniques
13. Loneliness
14. Metamorphosis
15. Prejudice
16. Rejection
17. Resilience
18. Visual literacy

Cicada tell story. Story good. Story simple. Story even human can understand. Tok Tok Tok! (Back Cover Text)

Cicada has worked for the company for seventeen years – always finishes work perfectly; does unpaid overtime; is never offered promotion; has no access to office bathroom; sleeps in office wall space; humans don’t like cicada; told to retire; climbs to top of building and ...

This stunning open-ended text is a philosophical exploration of the culture of work but also of society. It traverses themes such as belonging, alienation, corporate bureaucracy and work, bullying, difference and prejudice, submission to control/freedom, transformation/metamorphosis, resurrection and regeneration. Shaun Tan’s publisher describes the book as: ‘A dream of escape, a commentary on corporate slavery, a multi-layered allegory—Shaun has taken the humble cicada and created a mythic fairy-tale of magic, menace and wonder.’ (Justin Ratcliffe, co-managing Director, Hachette B&P 15 November 2017).

Shaun Tan is partly concerned here with Kafka’s nightmare of bureaucracy which, like many other concepts swirls together in a tantalising soup of ideas. For Tan’s images and words always defy categorisation. He relishes a sense of minimal control in his work – despite its intricate detail – and ambiguity is a tool which allows him the freedom to ask open-ended questions of relevance to every reader. Winner of the CBCA Picture Book of the Year Award 2019, this is a towering work of both the imagination and of empathy.

1. Hachette Australia [n.d.] Sheahan-Bright, Robyn ‘Teachers Notes for ‘Cicada’ by Shaun Tan https://www.hachette.com.au/content/resources/9780734418630-teachers-resources.pdf
2. Shaun Tan website Notes on ‘Cicada’ https://www.shauntan.net/cicada-book
3. Reading Time 29 August 2019. Shaun Tan – Acceptance Speech CBCA Awards ‘Cicada’ Picture Book of the Year https://readingtime.com.au/acceptance-speech-shaun-tan-cicada-winner-book-of-the-year-picture-book/
4. The Guardian 29 June 2018. ‘Shaun Tan’s “Cicada;’ a mediation on belonging and bullying – in pictures” https://www.theguardian.com/books/gallery/2018/jun/29/shaun-tans-cicada-a-meditation-on-belonging-and-bullying-in-pictures
5. Artshub 12 July 2022 Theatre review: ‘Cicada’ (A theatre adaption of Shaun Tan’s ‘Cicada’) https://www.artshub.com.au/news/reviews/theatre-review-cicada-2563239/
6. Pamela Kramer 12 February 2019 ‘Cicada is yet another brilliant allegory by Shaun Tan’ https://pamelakramer.com/2019/02/12/cicada-is-yet-another-brilliant-allegory-by-shaun-tan/
7. Children’s Literature in Critical Contexts of Displacement 12 August 2021 ‘Reading ‘Cicada’ by Shaun Tan: a reflective experience after the social outbreak in Chile in October 2019’ Trinidad Arellano Moya Spanish Elementary School Teacher, Santiago Chile https://childslitspaces.com/reading-cicada-by-shaun-tan-a-reflective-experience-after-the-social-outbreak-in-chile-in-october-2019/