Australian children book illustrator Shaun Tan Tuesday received his Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award from the hands of Swedish Crown Princess Victoria in Stockholm Concert Hall.

"Shaun Tan is a master visual storyteller, pointing the way ahead to new possibilities for picture books," said Larry Lempert, Chairman of the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award jury at the awarding ceremony.

"His pictorial worlds constitute a separate universe where nothing is self-evident and anything is possible. Memories of childhood and adolescence are fixed reference points, but the pictorial narrative is universal and touches everyone, regardless of age," Lempert read at the grand awarding ceremony.

Tan said after receiving the prize that "this prize is both for children and for adult," stressing that there is darkness in life, but if one can expose the darkness, shed light on it, the darkness can become lighter.

Tan has described immigrant children's life in his book since he himself is a Chinese immigrant's son.

Tan was born in 1974. His father is a Chinese immigrant and his mother is an Australian.

He has illustrated more than 20 books including The Rabbits (1998), The Lost Thing (2000), The Red Tree (2001), The Arrival ( 2006) and Tales from Outer Suburbia (2008).

Tan also collaborates on animated film, musical and theatrical adaptations of his works, as well as producing fine art and murals.

He has received a number of literary awards, including the German Young Literature Prize in 2009 for Tales from Outer Suburbia and a New York Times Best Illustrated Children's Books award in 2007 for The Arrival.

At this year's Academy Awards, Tan won the Oscar for best animated short film for The Lost Thing, based on his book of the same title.

His works have been translated into more than 10 languages, including German, Swedish, Spanish and Chinese.

The Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award is a major international prize for children's literature.

The award, which amounts to 5 million Swedish kronor (about 770,000 U.S. dollars), is awarded annually to a single recipient or to several.

The award is designed to promote interest in children and young adults' literature, and in children's rights, globally.