There’s always a hidden Christmas

New releases

While we already have an excellent new book adaptation of A Charlie Brown Christmas, well, there’s almost always another new edition lurking somewhere. This time, it was hidden at Kohl’s – whom I usually check for Peanuts books about this time of year, but with less going out these days, I was lucky to have AAUGH Blog reader Bill give me the heads-up.

This is not a brand new adaptation, but a reprint of the 2015 Simon Spotlight version, written by Tina Gallo and Illustrated by Scott Jeralds. Kohl’s has even reprinted this one before, last year. So, is the new edition just one of the copies they printed last year, attached to a Snoopy figure? Nope. For one thing, it’s much smaller, a 6 inches square edition rather than 10 inch.. For another, it no longer has the “50th Years – A Charlie Brown Christmas” logo that was four years too late last year… on the cover. It does still bear it on the inside.

And it turned out that there were none at my local Kohl’s; I don’t know if they were sold out or just hadn’t gotten them in. If you’re looking for them, they should be not in the toy department, but in the Kohl’s Cares display, where this year they have both a number of book-and-a-stuffed-figure combos like this for $9, with characters like Frosty and Mickey Mouse, as well as a bunch of Christmas books without figures. These are all fundraising items, with profits going to charity. Unable to score one locally, I turned to eBay, and got my nine dollar book for a mere twenty-one bucks.

The book is now included in our evergreen guide to book adaptations of A Charlie Brown Christmas.

New releases
A different kind of coffee table book

If you have a coffee table, you should have a “coffee table book”, a large, heavily illustrated color volume that your guests can easily and casually flip through, (Charles M. Schulz: The Art and Life of the Peanuts Creator in 100 Objects is a good choice, of course.) But you …

New releases
Review: Snoopy (Classic Cartoon Character Bios)

The Abdo Kids : Classic Cartoon Character Bios books are blatant stuff-to-fill-school-libraries material. Sturdy hardcovers, lots of pictures, 24 pages, little text – about 250 words. The Snoopy volume uses Snoopy images from just about anywhere: strips (appropriately licensed), animation, photos, The Peanuts Movie publicity materials. And the simple facts it …

Classic finds
A needle-ssly fine present

Being a) an adult and b) not a Christmasian, it makes sense that I’m not given much in the way of Christmas presents. This year’s haul was just two items, both given by Dr. Mrs. The AAUGH Blogger: a Terry’s Chocolate Orange (yum!), and this Peanuts embroidery book from Japan. …