The board book Letters to the Great Pumpkin is fairly straightforward on its goals. Linus decides that a letter-writing campaign is just the thing to get that legendary gourd to appear in his pumpkin patch, and various Peanuts characters each write a letter to the Great Pumpkin that reflects their personality (well, one writes the Great Grape.) The letters can be pulled partially out of slots in the book so that they can be read. I reckon that with a good tug, they can be pulled all the way out, and that is likely to happen to some in the hands of any kid who peruses this book repeatedly, but that’s okay — the goal of a kids’ book is not to stay in perfect condition, it’s to entertain the kid.

The characters do each put illustrations on their letters, small drawings of surprisingly good quality for the kids (and dog.) The whole thing could be reasonable fun to read through with a Peanuts-compatible kid. (To a certain degree, the physical letter seems like old tech, like the wired dial phones and oval-screened TVs that show up in Peanuts. I reckon the kids will still understand.) If you want something similar but without the tied-to-Halloweenishness of this, Letters to Snoopy is still available.

Written by Maggie Tesla, art by Scott Jeralds, both folks with a long track record on these kinds of things.

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