The AAUGH Blogger gets his white whale
- By : Nat
- Category : Classic finds, Reviews
Every collector has their white whale, that one thing they want which seems to elude them.
For me, for years, it has been School Peanuts 1.
It’s not just a Peanuts book that I didn’t have — there are still many of those from around the word. But it’s a book in English, which makes it part of my core collection. And it’s a book in an interesting series. And most of all, driving me toward my madness – it’s part of a numbered series, in which I have the other numbers. School Peanuts 2 and 3 have been on my shelves for years, announcing my failure as a collector by their very presence.
What makes the series interesting? Well, as I said, this book is in English…. but it was published in Denmark. The School Peanuts series is meant to be used as classroom material for students in their fourth year of learning English, and beyond. Each book is a black and white collection of Peanuts strips, each paired with some text about the strip, or about American culture relevant to the strip, often ending with a discussion question. “Why does Lucy says ‘Ready or not’ in picture number one?” “Why would an ocean liner never sink four feet from the shore?” “Why does Snoopy think that Charlie and Lucy are idiots?”
Yes, “Charlie”. The text does not embrace referring to him by his full name. And it does refer to the kids in the strip as “THE PEANUTS” (yes, all capital letters). The students in Denmark were being taught the wrong way to discuss Peanuts characters! (But the books were in 1970. Hopefully, some students have since gone back and taken Remedial Peanuts classes to correct their miseducation.)
So now, I have the full set of School Peanuts. That itch is scratched. And since it arrived a week or so back, I haven’t ordered any more Peanuts books. I expect that I shall; collecting will likely continue as it long has. To a certain degree, being the AAUGH Blogger is part of who I am, and I cannot be that without the accumulation of books. But perhaps, the most fun parts of the quest are over. Were I a wiser man, I might stop right now.
Be well, my friends.
