Kindly deliveryman has brought me two books in the [blank] Like [character] series, Messy Like Pigpen and Cool Like Snoopy. Now, when I review a book, I try to do it with consideration as to who the target market is… but in this case, I’m really not sure. These are board books, so you’d reckon that they’re for little hands (which they are), with lots of pictures (which they have), and perhaps some text (they’ve got that) which is meant for parents to read to pre-readers. It’s that last one where my expectations for the book grow befuddled.

Both of them tell stories based on the strip, with the Pigpen book more telling actual strip lines and Snoopy more about building a single story. And it’s in the Pigpen book, leaning more on strip dialog, where the most egregiously curious text lies. If you’re aiming a book at the under-3s, do you really want to throw in disheveled, psychiatrist, archaeologist, civilizations, and other words of that scale? Or is this book targeted at older folks, and if so, why a board book? This runs into the sort of juggling that happens regularly with Peanuts, which is a series developed for adults but embraced by children.

Vicki Scott unsurprisingly does a nice job of illustrating both books; I particularly like her Pigpen.

If you think these books are for you, I encourage you to buy and enjoy them. I’m just not sure who you are.

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