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Title: The United States (Tintin's Travel Diaries) by Chantal Deltenre, Martine Noblet, Maureen Walker, Barrons Educational Series ISBN: 0-8120-1867-2 Publisher: Barrons Juveniles Pub. Date: September, 1994 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $7.95

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Average Customer Rating: 5 (1 review)

Rating: 5
Summary: At look at the United States from the perspective of Tintin
Comment: "Tintin in America" was certainly an interesting look by Hergé at the United States, in that the country essentially consisted of gangster and Indians. Of course, this makes sense if you think about it from the perspective of a Belgian cartoonist creating a story in 1931 when Al Capone was notorious and the idea of cowboys and Indians, prohibition, all were part of the idea of "America." Consequently, this volume on the United States from the "Tintin's Travel Diaries" series takes the opportunity to set the record straight. Originally this volume was published in France (text by Chantal Deltenre and Martine Noblet, translation by Maureen Walker) which explains the interest in answering questions like "Is it called 'America' or 'The United States'?" to "What Sports Do Americans Like Best?" Thus we are confronted with a rare chance to see what they think about us in France (and if that is not an ironic idea given recent world events then I have no clear conception of the master trope of the universe).

For those who are completely in the dark, Tintin was the intrepid reporter who made his first appearance in 1929 in a serial newspaper strip with an adventure in the Soviet Union. After that Hergé sent his creation to the Belgian Congo and the United States. Obviously the idea behind "Tintin's Travel Diaries" is inspired by Hergé's characters and the conceit is that each volume is based on notebooks Tintin might have kept as he traveled. The idea is to explore the geography, customs, culture, and heritage of the people living in the lands Tintin visited. Each two-page spread addresses a key question designed for young readers, such as "Is the Dollars Still Strong?" and "Do People Still Hunt Buffalo?", and is illustrated with both Hergé's original cartooning and photographs showing the country as it is today. The publisher's note that Hergé often changed his stories and drawings to reflect the changes in the world, and one of the points young readers want to get from these books is how the cartoons represent the past while the photographs show today and give us some indication of how attitudes have changed over the course of half a century.

Like the Adventures of Tintin this look at the United States is fun and (surprise) educational. To be clear, while most of the original Hergé illustrations are indeed from "Tintin in America," there are some taken from later adventures as well. You do not have to read that original Tintin adventure before you pick up this travel diary, but if you read them back to back then you will certainly get a sense for why these particular questions are the ones being posed. This is really a nice companion volume, and, as I indicated above, a rare opportunity to look at the United States from a foreign perspective (albeit, that of a younger student). Other volumes in the series look at China, Tibet, India, and Africa