Home School Product Reviews

I love Tintin because my reluctant reader read this book a few years ago and finally decided that reading was fun!  That alone makes this book worth it’s weight in gold!

I would especially recommend this book for boys, and for anyone who is struggling with reading.  The pictures help the reader who might not be able to comprehend all the words.  My son treasures his Tintin copies and has told his friends about them.  I think it’s nice that these stories are not watered down or “babyish” and they are exciting to read.

My son cautions that there is some drinking of alcoholic beverages in these stories but it is not encouraged by Tintin, the main character, but rather seen as a negative thing.

Timberdoodle carries a fully library of Tintin graphics novels!

We have all but 3 of the Max Axiom books, one of our best homeschool purchases ever. Our 8-year-old son began reading these when he was 6 and continues to profit from them, recently asking for the additional 3 books. The entire family enjoys reading them and we have all learned a lot from these books. We will continue to purchase them as they become available. Anything that helps our children develop a love of and interest in God’s created world is an asset to our homeschool library. As Timberdoodle notes, these books are not written from a biblical perspective, but we have not found a constant theme of evolution in the books.

Shakespeare Graphic Novel Collection

As a literature major in college, I developed quite the affinity for The Bard. However, I have never agreed with the notion that Shakespeare plays should be read as they were written to be performed. But managing to take all eight children to regularly see Shakespeare has been challenging. While we do enjoy DVDs of his plays in theatrical form from the library, it was the Graphic Novels that really brought an appreciation of Shakespeare into our home. The illustrations are engaging, several of the more famous lines from each play are quoted, and the cast of characters before the story begins is incredibly helpful. Several of our children are visual learners, which has made these graphic novels even more valuable.

We are a family of readers, but I noticed that two of our children did not seem to enjoy reading as much as the others.  After trying out one volume of Tintin with great reviews, we purchased the whole set last Christmas (yes, this means we have a duplicate, but in our family this doesn’t seem to be an issue) and five months later they are still my children’s steady companions.  We have yet to go on a road trip that Tintin has not accompanied us, and my reluctant readers have now also branched out into other books. My younger non reading children have been seen poring over these as well, and I am sure they are even more motivated to learn so that they too can read what Tintin is up to. Thanks so much for carrying these books!

At first I was very apprehensive about buying these books because I didn’t see the benefit in comic books. My first three children are girls so there was never really any interest in comic books and reading was not a struggle. They were all ‘bookworms’. My son,(4th grade) however, was a different story. It was becoming a struggle for both of us to get his school work done. I bought these books to encourage his love of reading and hoped that he would retain something of value from reading them. I want him to enjoy learning. Well, it worked. He read two of them in a matter of days. He thanked me over and over saying how much he liked the books. So, I got him reading, he is enjoying history, and as an added bonus, his sisters read the books whenever they get the chance. There are a couple of things that I wasn’t crazy about. For example, in the ‘Diary of Anne Frank’ she has a brief thought about what it would be like for Peter to kiss her. Also, in the T-Rex book, there is the mention of millions of years ago. These instances were talked about but minor compared to the value of getting my son interested in reading. I will be buying more in the future.