I’m a few books behind on reviews, so I’m going to try to kick them out simple and quick.

• The Big Book of Peanuts: All the Daily Strips from the 1990s is exactly the same in format as the four prior volumes of this series, despite it being distributed differently. This is very handy as a reference volume, but seems to me less than optimal as a reading experience. But the 1990s is an interesting decade, one in which Peanuts improved overall, most notably in its last few years. If you have the other four, you know you’ll want this to complete your set. Me, I’m glad that I’ll never have to tell anyone again that this is probably not coming out.
• Chef Snoopy Cookbook: Tasty Recipes for Young Chefs — uneven in terms of Peanutsness, with lots of spread just being the recipe facing a photograph of the results (looking better than you’ll ever achieve, of course), with the Peanutsness just being starting the descriptor with “The entire Peanuts gang loves waffles…” or the like. No attempt at Peanutsy food names, the way some past cookbooks have done; the Sloppy Joes aren’t Sloppy Joe Cools. The Peanuts images chosen – and there are a fair number of them, despite the spreads without – are nice.  My only real complaint is the font they use for body text. The thin sans serif font looks attractive as an image, but seems hard to read or (importantly) to find your spot in when you’re working in less than optimal reading conditions, such as a kitchen. And not only is no one credit with the writing, nor anyone credited with the art, as much as I can tell, the name “Schulz” appears nowhere in this volume. Even more surprisingly, I cannot find a copyright statement, and no acknowledgement of trademark. If I didn’t know that this was published by WeldonOwen, who have had a good working relationship with Peanuts for years, I’d wonder if this was a pirated book.
• Snoopy’s Guide to the Great Outdoors feels like a reasonably introductory “how to camp” book placed effectively in a Peanuts context. They took advantage of lots of on-topic strips, with several dozen daily strips peppered within its 174 pages. The Peanutsness isn’t pushed too hard in the body of the text, but the sidebars all have Peanuts headers (“Pigpen’s Guide to Camping Hygiene”, “Camp President Mr. Sack’s Guide to Campground Etiquette”.) There is a healthy emphasis ojn being a responsible camper. Topics covered aren’t just how-tos like pitching a tent and traveling by compass, but also how to appreciate the nature, teaching you the names for different types of clouds, for example. I don’t think you should count on giving this or any other book to your kids and expect them to head off for a weekend alone in the woods; while it tries well, things like starting a campfire or tying a knot are best shown by someone experience… but I bet if you got this for your kid (I’d estimate it for reasonably smart 10 year olds and up, but that’s not my expertise), they’d feel encouraged to go on a hike or such.

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