Christmas is still here!

New releases

I finally remembered to pick up Christmas is Here! Holiday Gift Set, which packages a stuffed Snoopy wearing a stocking cap (yes, it’s hard to see when it’s in the box, but it is there) with a “Look-and-Find” board book. (It says that it’s a “First Look and Find”; perhaps that should be a “First Look and Then Find”)

The book is not just a reprint of Peanuts Look and Find, which itself was a reduced-sized reprint of the Merry Christmas, Charlie Brown Look and Find… but it is an abridgment thereof, just fewer spreads, presented in board book form.

This is a perfectly serviceable gift, if Christmas pops up unexpectedly. Eighteen bucks ain’t exactly a bargain for a board book and a stuffed animal, and I suspect that the age range for “still reading board books” and “has enough attention to look and to find” may be a rather narrow one.

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 …

New releases
Look! A mook!

Mooks – that is, items with magazine-like content but sold more like a book – are popular in Japan. Many of them come bundled with extra items, and there have been a fair number with Peanuts items. Most often these are bags – a handbag or a tote of some …