You can’t be blamed if you thought we were done with new book editions of A Charlie Brown Christmas for the year. Actually, it’s my fault. I said as much, after reviewing both this year’s slightly-different mini edition in a boxed set, and the pop-up edition.

But then I saw the Hallmark ad. A copy of A Charlie Brown Christmas book for $9.95 with the purchase of three greeting cards. So I biked on out to my local Hallmark Gold Crown store, purchased three cards (they have a 99 cent selection, generally toward the back of the store, although they don’t seem to include any Peanuts cards there any more) and got my book. They threw on some additional discount which they didn’t explain and I didn’t jinx by asking.

It’s a reprint of the 2008 “deluxe” adaptation with the Tom Brannon art, the same adaptation used on this year’s pop-up edition, but this non-popping version has one major edition: sound buttons. Come across one of the icons inserted into the text, push the button marked with that icon, and it plays some sound – an appropriate piece of the show’s dialog, perhaps, or a bit of music. Now, it’s not the music you’d expect; no “Linus & Lucy”, no “Christmastime is Here” – presumably, they didn’t want to pony up the costs for licensing those songs from the composer’s estate, and instead dropped in some other jazz riffs. (They do, however, include “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing” and “O Tanenbaum”, compositions which have long since entered the public domain.) But if you need to be able to hear Charlie Brown say “Good grief!” or Linus reel off some Gospel at the push of a button, then this is the book for you! You can see the book demonstrated here.

I have, of course, added this book to The AAUGH.com Evergreen, Evergrowing Guide to A Charlie Brown Christmas Books; that brings us up to 33 editions. If the fate of the free world ever depends on us having organized information about book adaptations of this classic TV special, then I shall be a hero!

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