Let me apologize for not keeping up with the blog; Peanuts books have been coming in, but I’ve been hectic with a variety of things, including some Peanuts-related work (we’re to the end of the process on my upcoming book The Snoopy Treasures), as well as life things.

One of the things that has come in is Be Awesome, the latest in the Peanuts Wisdom to Carry You Through series of collections of Peanuts quotes with new illustrations. This book is now mine, but it turns out not to be a book for me. It’s very specifically a female empowerment volume, picking quotes from and about the female characters, talking about ways of being strong. It’s not a surprise that this book could be made; Schulz’s female characters were not exactly shrinking violets (not even Violet!), and there is some aggressive feminism in the strip (most visibly in regards to sports.) And unlike many strips, the emotions of the female characters were rich and important to the work.

The illustration choice is interesting. The cover and section headers rely on Belle – a very recognizable character, well drawn here by Vicki Scott and Paige Braddock, but she can’t really be used in the body of the book, because she was actually very rarely in the strip and she said almost nothing.

This book is a hardcover, but it looks like a paperback version will be part of the boxed set A Box of Holiday Wisdom, coming in September.

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