The most revered graphic novel series in the homeschool community is the venerated Tintin series. Countless mothers have told us that their son's pivotal point in reading came when he was introduced to Tintin. Originally a series of comic strips created by Belgian artist Hergé, The Adventures of Tintin first appeared in a children's supplement to a Belgian newspaper in 1929. The success of the series saw the strips collected into a succession of books, which are still hugely popular eighty years later. In fact, Tintin is one of the most popular graphic novel series of all time, with translations published in over 50 languages and more than 200 million copies of the books sold to date.
The hero of the series is Tintin, a young Belgian investigative reporter who travels the world in search of the next notable event. One of the most astonishing features of the Tintin series is how it so effortlessly includes a wide variety of genres: brash adventures along with mysteries, political thrillers, and science fiction. Some Tintin stories feature slapstick humor, while others are invested with political and cultural satire, but each will draw your child like a magnet.
Unlike some graphic novels, where the text and the pictures are redundant, Tintin's plots are so engagingly complex that the text both amplifies and explains the neat, lively drawings, a balance that remains a benchmark for graphic novelists even today. This means your child will quickly discover that the story is much more than the pictures; even the most reluctant of readers may for the first time be willing to exert effort to decipher the written word. As a teaching parent you will appreciate the author's painstaking research, which adds to the credibility of each adventure, and your children will gain a glimpse into a world of which they are just beginning to become aware.
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