New releases

Review: Peanuts Origami

The book Peanuts Origami is designed for people who are not me, specifically people who are willing to rip pages out of a Peanuts book so that they can fold them into things. Maybe if I had three copies, I would do that for one. I shall not find out. But …

Animated Peanuts

Hey, A Charlie Brown Christmas just popped up!

I just received the new pop-up book adaptation of A Charlie Brown Christmas, and we have a real winner here. No, this isn’t a reprint of the old Running Press pop-up version. And it certainly isn’t last year’s Hallmark version with just one single pop-up at the end. No, this …

New releases

Review: Peanuts Lunch Bag Cookbook

The latest Peanuts cookbook, Peanuts Lunch Bag Cookbook, is another hardcover from the same folks who brought us the Peanuts Family Cookbook, and as with that one, this is a physically lovely item. Dozens of recipes with sometimes goofily Peanuts-y names, each accompanied with a relevant daily strip. On the facing …

New releases

Review: Be Thankful, Be Giving

I don’t think I’ve ever wished to give books letter grades before, but it would be fun to write Be Thankful, Be Giving: B+. I’m not saying that’s accurate, I’m saying that’d be fun to write. Be Thankful, Be Giving is a D-shaped Thanksgiving-themed board book. For a board book, they …

New releases

Review: Let’s Go to the Library!

The new “Ready-to-Read Level Two” storybook Let’s Go to the Library! is officially “by Charles M. Schulz, adapted by May Nakamura, illustrated by Robert Pope”, and it’s actually valid to call it an adaptation (which is not true of some of these storybooks.) This tale of Sally’s first trip to …

New releases

Review: Snoopy Goes to Space

  The “book and flashlight set” Snoopy Goes to Space is another boxed set item from Phoenix International. The book is one of those sound-button books for kids, where as you read, the text include pictures of buttons to push. Push the button, and you get the appropriate sound effect. The …

New releases

Review: Better Together

Better Together is a recent Hallmark release that bridges halfway between a pictures-and-aphorisms book like Happiness is a Warm Puppy and a strip collection. The square book is a series of spreads of Peanuts strips (really, Snoopy strips; the dog is in every one of them) paired with an aphorism on friendship. …

New releases

Cynical Supersnoop

Working in the comics field and being a long-time reader of comic books, I’ve grown accustomed to the darker, cynical take on superheroes, depicting them with twisted motivations and deleterious effect. At times, it is quite well done (as in Watchmen); at other times, it’s a weak attempt deconstruction (like …

New releases

Maybe they’re Martian years

Following up on my recent review of Snoopy: A Beagle of Mars (a title which, by the way, is an Edgar Rice Burroughs reference): several people gave me confirmation that physical copies of the book actually did come out last December. This is a second (or later) printing. However, they changed …

New releases

Review: Snoopy: A Beagle of Mars

This is going to be a bit awkward. Snoopy: A Beagle of Mars is a (mostly) original graphic novel that was released in December… but I somehow failed to properly pre-order it. Then my local comic shop tried to reorder a copy for me, but for some reason, the system wasn’t …