The Viewer by Shaun Tan and Gary Crew
Background
Written by Gary Crew and illustrated by Shaun Tan, they spin a chilling tale in The Viewer. A curious boy, drawn to the strange and forgotten, stumbles upon a peculiar box at a junkyard. Inside, an ancient chest holds a collection of unsettling artifacts, but one object stands out: a meticulously crafted device filled with image discs.
Why it's a hit: It's mysterious, it's captivating and it's got just the right level of spook.
Cross-curricular links: Toys, fantasy, natural disasters, war, history
Perfect for: Older readers, UKS2
Published by: Hachette UK
Personal experience
I first discovered this book whilst I was sipping champagne at a wedding. I'd used many of Shaun Tan's books in my classroom but I had never heard of The Viewer. I'm not sure how we got onto the topic of picture books at a wedding but we did. I was sat next to another teacher (whom I'd never met before) and she mentioned that she was currently teaching the book 'The Viewer' to her Year 6 class. I asked what it was about and her mouth dropped open. 'Omg you've never read The Viewer?' I can safely say, it wasn't long until I purchased the book.
Before reading
I love the front cover of this book. It's so mysterious. I like to dive deeper into the title too. I'll get the children thinking about words related to 'view' - often they'll think of some synonyms then spiral off wondering whether 'the viewer' is a person doing the viewing or an object called 'the viewer'. It's a nice opportunity to get the good old thesauruses out for some fun with words. Then I'll read them my favourite line from the book 'One by one strange images flickered into life. First, a scene of fearful chaos. Then others, more luminous and eerie...(cue the ooohs and ahhhhs from the class.)
The big read and the pictures
This book is short enough and gripping enough to read in one session so that's usually what I'll do. Some nice pauses for effect, of course, and maybe one 'so what happens next?' moment but usually that's it from me. The book sells itself.
Last year, my class reached a pivotal moment in "The Viewer." As Tristan placed the disc and the first image flickered to life, a window into the past opened before us. Each visual, brought to life in the book's stunning illustrations, unfolded a story, illuminating key historical events. For a picture book, this narrative became a treasure trove – a visual feast that sparked deep analysis and insightful commentary from my students. It felt like the classroom had ignited!
The children's responses to the images were remarkable. Themes of disaster and human suffering resonated with them, prompting connections to situations they had encountered in their own lives. Engaging conversations unfolded around the artwork, creating links between pages, interpreting the text that accompanied them, and drawing parallels to characters both within the story and from other books.
The level of analysis displayed by every student, regardless of their usual learning style, was truly outstanding. Witnessing their insightful discussions left me in awe. The power of these illustrations, combined with the narrative's core themes, created a learning experience that transcended the pages of the book.
Reading and writing sessions
It's perfect for prediction making, exploring character impressions and looking at how tension/suspense is used in stories. One of my favourite reading sessions is summarising the story where I created a blank viewer for my class and they drew the key moments.
Writing sessions on this text take approximately 15 sessions (3 weeks). I use this book with either Year 5 or Year 6 due to the themes/language level. The language in this book is rather wonderful. I love to create a word bank for the children to use at a later date when we've moved onto a different book and we're writing a narrative let's say. I'll grab the word banks and they LOVE to reuse the language in their own stories. I also like to vary the end writing outcome for this text but my favourite is writing our own ending for the story. Others we've done are a newspaper report and a retelling.
To conclude..
A captivating story, stunning pictures, cliff hanger galore. Buy it now. You won't regret it.
If you're interested in using this book in your classroom and would like some planning resources, please check out my resource page :)