There is a scene in one of my favorite comic book series of all time, ‘Mazing Man, in which one of the characters sees his friend, Guido, working in a shoe store, then later that day, sees him working in a different shoe store. When Guido is confronted with the accusation that’s working on two shoe stores, he replies “Nah, that’d be stupid. I’m working in three shoe stores.” I find a parallel in that in how, in an extraordinary level of willingness to confuse people beyond the usual we’re-reusing-the-title-from-a-200year0old-Peanuts-book problem, there now look to be scheduled not two but three different English language Peanuts books shipping this year with the title Snoopy and Friends. There’s the UK-only Snoopy and Friends, a book for English language learners written by Jacquie Bloese; there’s a 24 page Little Golden Book Snoopy and Friends, listed as a Peanuts movie tie-in (which suggests that it may not just be a reprint of a Golden Book from 1990), and there’s the 14 page board book movie tie in with the enthusiastically exclamationpointed title Snoopy and Friends! (Those last two volumes are scheduled to ship the same day, September 22, making for the sort of hilarious hijinx that drives all of Hollywood’s modern Peanuts book-themed romantic comedies.)

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