The World’s Greatest Beagle Scout

New releases

I now have my copies of The World’s Greatest Beagle Scout, the seventh of the ten-book run of Peanuts books being distributed. It’s a slightly-oddly-c0lored (washed-out looking) series of 5 two-page images describing what Snoopy does with his Beagle Scout troop on an overnight hike.

There’s nothing particularly amusing about any of it, which seems a missed opportunity, but the humor in the Beagle Scout strips are largely over Snoopy responding to what someone has said… and this book is purely narration. Yes, yes, “distracting” is probably the main goal of these books, rather than “amusing”, but it wouldn’t hurt.  It would give the adult reading the story to the child some aspect to enjoy. Instead, we have to put our focus on looking for little curious details, like in the final spread:

While Snoopy and the rest of the troop are sleeping, unnamed bird in the red sleeping bag lies there with his eyes open. Is he unable to sleep? Or is he planning something?

New releases
A pop-up shows up

Here Comes Charlie Brown!: A Peanuts Pop-up, Gene Kannenberg, Jr.’s adaptation of the very first Peanuts strip, is not the first Peanuts book to reprint only a single strip. There was at least one board book that did much the same thing. However, that board book was, at heart, a …

Classic finds
English Phrases to Comfort Your Heart

The next book in my Amazon Japan shipment falls into the adorable category of “Peanuts used to explain American culture”. English Phrases to Comfort Your Heart with Snoopy by Nobu Yamada falls into that category. It also falls into the category of “books which are meant to be destroyed”, as each …

New releases
Look! A mook!

Mooks – that is, items with magazine-like content but sold more like a book – are popular in Japan. Many of them come bundled with extra items, and there have been a fair number with Peanuts items. Most often these are bags – a handbag or a tote of some …