Talkin’ Smak!

smakI’ve recently gotten SMAK! Reflections on Love From the Peanuts Gang, a new gift book available at Hallmark stores (well, some of ’em, I had to order online.) This is book is a full color (if muted color) mixtures of images from the strip with sayings about love, images from the strip with quotes from the strip, and actual strips (dailies, reprinted in non-traditional color, and only about a half dozen of ’em). As a book guy, I find the physical construction interesting, more like a paperback with slabs of cardboard attached to the front and back than the format one usually thinks of when one hears “hardcover”. There are some nice design touches, such as subtle use of strip images being used as the background of some pages.

This is not a book to get because you need Peanuts, but it seems to be a reasonable item for its primary function, as a physical item of joy to present to celebrate romance. $12.95, and it will survive longer than a box of chocolates.

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 …