The Adventures of Tintin

My kids are on a Tintin kick these days. They discovered them in the comic book section of our library over the summer. I'm not one of those parents who worries about their kids reading comic books. First of all, I read comics when I was a kid, and I moved on to reading lots of big books with no pictures at all. Also, I still read comic books, so I'm having fun reading the Tintin books to my kids.
The Tintin books, by Herge (real name Georges Remi) were mostly written in the 1930's, 40's and 50's. Herge was Belgian, but the books take place everywhere from England to Tibet to the moon. Tintin is a young reporter who travels the world (and beyond) to investigate smugglers and spies and dangerous criminals. He spends a lot of time being shot at, hit on the head, held prisoner, threatened with death, and escaping from police officers after he's been set up by the bad guys. Perhaps because there is a lot of humor in the books, my kids never seem to be too worried about his fate. And they shouldn't be - Tintin always gets away, and he always gets his story.
Snowy is Tintin's adorable little white dog and trusty sidekick. Sometimes the bad guys try to shoot Snowy, but he always gets away, and usually shows up just in time to chew the ropes used to tie Tintin's hands together in captivity. Professor Calculus is a brilliant inventor who is very hard of hearing, so he often misunderstands what everyone is saying. Captain Haddock is a sailor with a strong temper and an even stronger taste for whiskey.
Apparently the Tintin books have been criticized for negative portrayals of some ethnic groups, but the books we've read so far have not been egregious - in fact Tintin makes fun of Europeans who stereotype the Chinese in The Blue Lotus. So if you don't mind exposing your children to violence, criminality, and jokes about alcohol dependency, your family might enjoy the Tintin books too.

All Aboard!

Tonight's bedtime story was "All Aboard!" by James Stevenson. This is a comic-book style story with panels and dialogue balloons, but the artwork has a loose, watercolor look using muted colors, not superhero brights. The story takes place in 1939, as Hubie and his family take a train to New York City to see the World's Fair. Hubie accidentally gets on the wrong train, then falls off that train, gets lost in a sandstorm, and has lots of wild adventures before finally meeting back up with his family at the World's Fair. Hubie and his family are mice, a friendly train conductor is a pig, and Miss Betty Beagle, the famous aviatrix, is of course a beagle. This is a fun, exciting story, made even better for my audience by the TRAINS.
Tonight I noticed for the first time that there are two more Hubie stories, so I've ordered "The Stowaway" from the library. I'll probably be blogging about it soon!
Also coming soon will be a full report on "Peter and the Starcatchers," as we have only a couple more chapters to go.
I have no books to report on myself, because between window shopping on Etsy, baking brownies and graham crackers, and reading the Sunday New York Times, I just haven't gotten much (other) reading done.