The other day, I posted this cover:
… with the caption “As for the title, I’m as befuddled as Charlie Brown is by the title of his book” Several alert Japanese-literate AAUGH Blog readers dropped a line to let me know that the title is Snoopy’s nazo nazo kyoushitsu, which they transalted variously as Snoopy’s Riddle Classroom and Snoopy’s Puzzle Classroom, with a note that in the heart it says it’s a “frienship book”. Looking at the innards of this board book, I’d say that puzzle is the appropriate term in this instance. It includes such things as a find-the-differences-in-the-pictures puzzle, a word maze, even a jigsaw puzzle to cut out. Thanks to all who chipped in.
This shaped kiddie book is published by Sanrio, who are far better known for their original creations such as Hello Kitty and Badatz Maru. It wasn’t until I got this book that I thought about how much the Japanese success of Peanuts may be due to the influence of this licensee with all their talents for making hits out of characters.
Hey, did you buy someone an MP3 player for Christmas? It’d be a hsame to give it to them empty – particularly when you can get some dynamite deals, like Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon for $1.99, a Lady Gaga album for $5, or some Ray Charles, Beach Boys, or the Yeah Yeah Yeahs.
