In Costco today, I discovered some new Peanuts books that I’d not heard of, and can find no reference to elsewhere. I’m not sure all of where these are available – at Costco, obviously, but it wouldn’t surprise me if other big-box stores (such as Sam’s Club) have them, or if they might surface on the discount book racks. They don’t have cover prices, so they’re clearly not meant for standard book distribution.

Peanuts Collection is a hardcover that just re-collects the contents of three paperback books:

• It’s a Dog’s Life, Snoopy (which reprints all of the dailies and Sundays from 1998)
• It’s a Big World, Charlie Brown (which reprints all of the dailies and Sundays from 1997)
• Peanuts 2000 (which reprints all of the dailies and Sundays from 1999 and 2000, except for the final daily which was just reformatted to make the final Sunday)

So on one hand, if you already have those three books, you don’t need these unless you’re an insane collector like me and want all of the editions. On the other hand, this is a hardcover that has all of the dailies and Sundays that you can expect to find in volumes 24 and 25 of The Complete Peanuts years from now (except for that last daily), and it has them all in color to boot. But it does have one frustration for those who want to use it as a substitute for The Complete Peanuts. Look carefully at that listing of books above – this book includes them in that order, which means that it has all the 1998 strips, then goes back to 1997, then jumps forward again to 1999. (Also, it uses the vertical format for the Sunday strips, which means it’s missing the extra designed-to-be-removable panel that The Complete Peanuts is likely to include.) I paid $17.99 for it, but that doesn’t mean that that’s what it’ll be priced at elsewhere. Not a bad price for an inch-and-a-half thick hardcover.

More Peanuts Collection (what an awkward name!) is the same format, collecting:

• Who’s on First, Charlie Brown (a collection of baseball strips from across the run of Peanuts)
• The World According to Lucy (the dailies and Sundays from 1996)
• It Was a Dark and Stormy Night, Snoopy (the dailies and Sundays from 1995)

So you get a lot of baseball strips, plus you get the dailies and Sundays slated for Complete Peanuts volume 23. This time, only the Sundays from 1996 are in color. However, we do get the horizontal versions of the 1995 Sundays, so we get the extra panel there. If you want to get either of these two books for someone as a gift, I recommend Peanuts Collection over More Peanuts Collection; not only is it more colorful, but I felt that Schulz was on a strong creative upswing particularly in his last three years, and that’s the material that makes up that book.

Also found there was Snoopy’s Story Box, a new box set of kids board books – actually, a little carrying case with handle that has four books in it:

• Meet Snoopy
• My Favorite Things
• Sweet Dreams, Snoopy
• Snoopy’s Feelings

Those of you who memorize all of the Peanuts board book titles (and who doesn’t?) will recognize all of these. The first three were previously available as a boxed set called Snoopy’s Doghouse Library, while the fourth is available on its own. However, the books have been reformatted for this new set, made much larger (the Doghouse Library books are only about 3 inches high, these are more like 7) and rectangular (the original Snoopy’s Feelings was shaped like Snoopy’s head, with a neat rubberized cover). $9.89 for the set is what I paid, but again there’s no cover price, so it may show up elsewhere at other prices.

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