Question from a parent regarding Lexile and the TinTin series

A parent asked a great question that I would like to share with all readers:

Will you tell me the lexile level for the Tintin series by Herge? My son is in third grade. His teacher wants him to read "just right" books. Thanks!

 The answer is there isn't a Lexile rating for this series. Lexile gives it a rating of "NP" which they define as:

NP: Non-Prose
The NP code is for any book comprising more than 50% non-standard or non-conforming prose. NP books do not receive a Lexile measure, merely the NP code. Some common examples of non-prose content are poems, plays, songs, recipes, and text with non-standard or absent punctuation. Since the Lexile Framework is based on prose analysis, Maurice Sendak's Alligators All Around (HarperTrophy) is coded NP. The text of the book is not in complete sentences and lacks punctuation entirely. The text difficulty of such a book cannot currently be assigned a Lexile measure.

I would say if your son is reading TinTin and enjoying them, fabulous. Let him keep reading them for fun. But in terms of reading development, third graders vary hugely in reading ability. Come into my library and I'll give you a booklist I have called, "Just Right: Not too easy, not too hard" and let's see what we can find for him to read that will satisfy his teacher's requirements, will be a good fit for his own interests and  his current reading ability, but will be enough of a challenge to build his reading skills.

As I said in this previous post, and this one, I'm more concerned that we get the right books in his hands rather than worrying too much about matching a specific Lexile number.

Thanks for the great question!