You, in a Peanuts book

“Customized” books have been around for a long time, with specialty publishers offering to insert your child’s name and sometimes some key details into a children’s book, giving them a unique item that talks about him. The publisher Sourcebooks has a line of these special-order items that add not just a name but also a photo, priced at $24.99 to $32.99. Their titles include ones starring Sesame Street fuzzball Elmo and the Berentstain Bears, and soon (I’m not sure quite when), they’ll have Peanuts titles as well.

Meanwhile, those are not the only Peanuts books that Sourcebooks is putting out. Coming in September are Cheer Up, Charlie Brown!: Getting Through Life One Laugh at a Time and Good Grief, It’s Your Birthday!: Growing Up Without Growing Old; given a press release says that the publisher will “re-package classic stories” (as well as information about format), I assume these are reprints of the books  Don’t Give Up, Charlie Brown! and Good Grief, It’s Your Birthday! that were published by Harvest House back in 2006. Both of these hardcover books are available now for preorder.

That makes ten Peanuts book releases currently announced for September. If you were afraid we were going to face a shortage of Peanuts books, consider those concerns addressed.

Upcoming releases
A book I’d not expected to resurface

Back in 2011, Schulz’s granddaughter Dena Hodges issued the first two chapters of  a memoir called In the Shadow of the Family Dog. As I noted in my review at the time, the chapter and the description of the project made it clear that the focus was her relationship with …

Upcoming releases
A box of squares

This May, Fantagraphics is collecting the various small square Peanuts books they’ve published into a new box set, Peanuts All Year Round Mini Collection. This includes: A Valentine for Charlie Brown — Valentine’s Day and romance strips Batter-Up Charlie Brown! — baseball strips Waiting for the Great Pumpkin — Halloween …

Upcoming releases
Game Day returns

Back in 2020, Fantagraphics dropped Game Day, a boxed set of sports-themes Peanuts strip reprint paperbackss, as a Costco exclusive. Next June it’s coming back, this time in hardcover and available through the usual sources. Designed as a Father’s Day gift, it should be good for anyone who likes Peanuts …