You’re Adjective, Charlie Color!

PMadLibsAmong the recent rush of Peanuts books is Peanuts Mad Libs. For the few of you who don’t know the Mad Libs books, this is a game where one player gets the other player to give them a list of words of various types (“give me an adjective, a verb ending in “ing”, another adjective” etc.) which are then filled into blank spots in a story to create a vastly silly result, if all goes well. This book simply applies that game to short stories about the Peanuts characters – really, largely discussions of the characters (“Linus’s blanket makes him feel safe and ADJECTIVE. But this handy NOUN can also be used in other ways, such as:”) Covering Peanuts in text is always tricky, but I imagine the results will be largely as fun as the typical Mad Libs. I do wish they’d tried a few pages of plugging words into comic strips. (I experimented with basically that format in a book I created, The Most Adjective Romance Comics Ever!) Still, this is cheap fun in both senses of the term.

Classic finds
Review: Christmas Gift Certificates for You

When I ordered a copy of the 1981 Hallmark Peanuts product Christmas Gift Certificates for You, I reckoned it would be one of those novelty coupon books, each page removable and offering the recipient a walk in the snow, help taking down the tree, or some Peanuts-y equivalent thereof. I …

New releases
A pop-up shows up

Here Comes Charlie Brown!: A Peanuts Pop-up, Gene Kannenberg, Jr.’s adaptation of the very first Peanuts strip, is not the first Peanuts book to reprint only a single strip. There was at least one board book that did much the same thing. However, that board book was, at heart, a …

Classic finds
English Phrases to Comfort Your Heart

The next book in my Amazon Japan shipment falls into the adorable category of “Peanuts used to explain American culture”. English Phrases to Comfort Your Heart with Snoopy by Nobu Yamada falls into that category. It also falls into the category of “books which are meant to be destroyed”, as each …