2013’s Charlie Brown Christmas take 2

2013Bc

Just arrived here at the magnificent AAUGH office campus, we’ve just received the second new book edition of A Charlie Brown Christmas for this year. Well, calling this a new edition is generous, but I’m a generous soul. What we’ve got here is a rerelease of 2000’s A Charlie Brown Christmas: The Making of a Tradition, a making-of book written by Peanuts animation producer Lee Mendelson which includes the script illustrated with shots from the movie. (That qualifies it as a print adaptation in my book, which qualifies it for inclusion in my pointlessly obsessive guide to print adaptations of the classic TV special.) The only changes from the earlier edition are a new cover, the necessary changes on the copyright page, and the elimination of the fifth color from the printing (which means that the silver borders that ran around some pages are gone.) It’s a good book if you don’t already have one.

So that’s the last of the CB Christmas adaptations that I know are coming for this year… but the year often brings surprises. And frankly, if Hallmark were to offer a new book edition, that would not be a surprise, they offer them so frequently, it would be more of a surprise if they didn’t.

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 …