Review: Blessings from Peanuts

New releases

While Hallmark has seen fit not to grant us another book adaptation of A Charlie Brown Christmas this year (sniff), they have issued another new book for the reason-for-the-season crowd. Blessings from Peanuts: Thoughts on Faith to Make You Smile is a hardcover gift book which collects a number of Bible and religion-themed strips from over the years. The book has a good, muted visual design with some minimalist coloring. The strips are interspersed with pages of Bible citations. Strip selection runs the gamut from those that are really pitching the religious angle to those that are merely being silly in a religious context. At $12.95 for 27 daily strips (each laid out across two pages), it’s not exactly a bargain if you’re looking to initiate someone into Peanuts, but if you have someone on your gift list who would probably like this, you’d probably be right.

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 …