Ballantine Books has announced a March release for Peanuts All-Stars, a 256 page paperback strip collection. From the title, it sounds like it would be about baseball, but Ballantine published a baseball-themed collection last April, Who’s on First, Charlie Brown. Of course, that doesn’t rule out doing another one. I’ll let you know more when I know.

Meanwhile, I’ve got some more details on some of the upcoming kiddie books:

• There’s a reason why the upcoming board book Snoopy & Charlie Brown looks so much like the earlier board book Charlie Brown & Snoopy; it’s a smaller reprint of that book.
• The book Peanuts Holiday Treasury collects five animated adaptations into one volume: It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown; A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving; A Charlie Brown Christmas; Be My Valentine, Charlie Brown; and It’s the Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown.
• And I’ll let the publisher describe A Peanuts Valentine: “The entire Peanuts gang is preparing for Valentine’s Day in this new Peanuts novelty book. Even good ol’ Charlie Brown has finally decided that he’s going to make the most beautiful valentine ever for the Little Red-Haired Girl—and give it to her! Featured on each spread is an envelope that can be opened and a real valentine to pull out: an origami fortune-teller, a tasty recipe from Pigpen, paper dolls from Marcie and Peppermint Patty, finger puppets courtesy of Snoopy and Woodstock, and more! Peanuts fans will love exploring the envelopes and chuckling at the contents as they join Charlie Brown, who stumbles through another Valentine’s Day trying to tell the Little Red-Haired Girl how he feels! “

Our pals at BookCloseOuts have a number of discounted remaindered copies of Peanuts books available. For example, the nicely done pop-up book Peanuts: A Pop-Up Celebration is half off, a hair under $10. And Why, Charlie Brown, Why?, the hardcover adaptation of the touching Peanuts special with real Schulz art is more than two-thirds off, coming in at under $5. Click through on either of those then click on Schulz, Charles M. on the page description to see a bunch of other Peanuts books, including strip collections, board books, story books, and more.

Well, that’s the news for now. If you’re attending Comic-Con International: San Diego on July 13-17 (and you should; it’s an amazing huge event not just for comic fans, but for fans of a large range of popular culture), be sure to visit me at the About Comics booth, #1903. And hey, on Saturday the Schulz Museum is scheduled to give a presentation, with several representatives including Jean Schulz.

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