Review by Booklist Review
If anything on the comics page is an institution, it is "Peanuts," which marks its 50th anniversary next year. Part of the celebration is this lavish collection documenting the strip's history. Among the 1,000 strips it reprints are early appearances of hapless but game Charlie Brown, his dog Snoopy, "fussbudget" Lucy, and her blanket-toting brother Linus, as well as of such comparative newcomers as Peppermint Patty and Snoopy's brother Spike. Such strip motifs as the Great Pumpkin and Charlie Brown on the pitcher's mound are traced, as are Snoopy's evolution from mute pet to philosopher and World War I flying ace and the strip's transmogrification into animated cartoons and a Broadway musical. Creator Schulz's annotations reveal how much thought goes into the deceptively simple comic. "Peanuts" is so long-lived that it is easy to take for granted. This is a nice reminder of how substantial and how remarkably consistent Schulz's half century of work is. Here's hoping the peanuts never grow up and that Charlie Brown never wises up to Lucy's football trick. --Gordon Flagg
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
