The Black Island is the seventh of the Tintin series. This story starts off with a bang... literally. Tintin is out for a walk with his dog Snowy when they come upon a plane that appears to be in trouble. The plane makes an emergency landing, and when Tintin approaches to see if he can help, he is shot for his trouble! Luckily it's just a grazing wound, and he wakes up in the hospital more or less okay. There he hears from the bumbling detectives Thomson and Thompson that an unregistered plane has crashed in England, and they have been put on the case. Coincidence? Surely not.
Tintin checks himself out of the hospital and proceeds toinvestigate, and the usual crazy chain of events ensues. Tintin is soon matching wits with those who don't want him snooping around. He gets captured, escapes (with the help of Snowy) and soon runs afoul of a Dr. Muller, who appears to be the ringleader of a ring of forgers. He chases the bad guys all over England and ends up in Scotland, where he traces them to a crumbling castle on a desolate island. The castle apparently not uninhabited however- there is a local legend of a mysterious creature that resides there, and no one ever returns. This doesn't deter Tintin and Snowy of course, and when they arrive they find the legend to be true- although it's not what they would have expected. More hijinks ensue, Snowy comes to the rescue again, and Tintin finally comes face to face wih the ringleader of the whole operation- and gets a bit of timely last minute assistance. It's pretty much nonstop action from the get- go- I almost got breathless reading this.
We found this on vacation and had to get it. My daughter loves these and we had a lot of fun laughing over this one.This is an early one in the series so the larger supporting cast of later volumes is absent- it's mostly Tintin and Snowy here, but that's fine and it works. The artwork is superb as always, and really gives you a feel for the locations that Tintin goes to. This one has it all- a chase on a train, plane crashes, you name it. A fun, action packed story and a joy to look at as well.
Seeing your reviews of these has reminded me how much I enjoy the movie and how much I liked the one book I read. I've just put 7 three-in-one volumes on hold at the library (not all at once; I suspended the holds and will activate a few at a time after my summer vacation.)
ReplyDeleteI have never read these books but I think I would enjoy them. I've been having fun going back and filling in the gaps in with my reading. This also sounds like a fun book to read aloud. I think my 4 year old would love it.
ReplyDeleteIt's always weird for me when I see people outside of France or Belgium who know about Tintin or Asterix the Gaul (I know, Spielberg has been there). And I didn't know Milou's English name was Snowy ! Glad you loved it ;)
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