First the good news: the Titan Books reprints of classic Peanuts strip collections have taken a step I hadn’t expected: reprinting one of the Peanuts Parade book, the 7″x10″ series that ran 29 volumes, a mix of new reprint volumes and reformatting of previous volumes. Specifically, they’re reprinting And a Woodstock in a Birch Tree.

Now for the more awkward news… the solicitation copy was apparently in the hands of someone who was given a few talking points, rather than someone who knew what they were talking about.

Feast your eyes on almost 200 pages of classic Peanuts comic strips. This Facsimile edition of the original Peanut Parade Book was first published in 1979 and features dozens of hilarious daily and Sunday Peanuts newspaper strips.

Featuring many of your favourite characters, including Charlie Brown, Snoopy, Lucy, Schroeder, Linus, Susan Brown and Marcie, and introducing some much-loved new characters including Eudora, Molly Volley and Snoopy’s brother Spike. Join the gang for summer camps, scout troops, baseball, book reports, and disco. This book is a facsimile edition of the 14th Peanuts paperback book and collects 188 pages of classic comic strips taken from the years 1978 – 1979. The book was originally published back in 1979 by Holt, Rinehat and Winston of Canada.

1. Peanut Parade Book. Peanut? Singular?? No.
2. Peanut Parade Book. Capitalized and italicized like that, it makes it look like that was the name of the book reprinted. There was a line of books called Peanuts Parade. So this was a Peanuts Parade book, but not Peanuts Parade Book.
3. dozens of hilarious … strips? If this is an accurate reprint, it has hundreds of strips in it. Are they trying to suggest that most of them aren’t hilarious?
4. Susan Brown? Who???
5. introducing some much-loved new characters including Eudora, Molly Volley and Snoopy’s brother Spike? And a Woodstock in a Birch Tree reprints strips from 1978 and 1979. Molly Volley first appeared in 1977, and Spike in 1975.
6. much-loved new characters including Eudora, Molly Volley… Molly Volley is much loved? That’s a fan base I’ve missed so far.
7. This book is a facsimile edition of the 14th Peanuts paperback book? No. It might be Titan’s 14th facsimile edition (I haven’t checked), but it’s by no means the 14th Peanuts paperback. In fact, it’s book #23 in the Peanuts Parade series (although to be accurate, the books were not released strictly in numbered order.)
8. collects 188 pages of classic comic strips? Well the original book has 188 pages… but the first four are front matter (title page, copyright page, etc.), not strips. There’s a strip on the back cover, so I’ll give them that one (except they’ll probably at least reduce it to make room for the UPC code, something the original didn’t have), but they’re still coming up short.
9. Holt, Rinehat and Winston? Rinehart, not hat.
10. of Canada? Well yes, as the copyright page says, it was published by the US company Holt, Rinehart and Winston, and published simultaneously by Holt, Rinehart and Winston of Canada, Limited. Kind of odd to pick the Canadian entry there.
11. Print length: 128 pages? But… didn’t it say in the paragraph about that “188 pages” and the one above that “almost 200 pages”? If this solicitation goes on any further, the book may disappear entirely!

If this is actually a full length and full size, the $7.99 is a pretty good deal, basically double the cover price that this book had when it came out over 40 years back.

And a Woodstock in a Birch Tree is scheduled to ship in July, and is available for preorder now.

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