A Charlie Brown Christmas [Hardcover]

Charles M. Schulz (Author, Illustrator)

Book Description

Series: Peanuts

Surrounded by other kids with extremely commercial ideas about Christmas, Charlie Brown struggles to understand the true spirit of the holiday.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Just like It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown and A Charlie Brown Valentine, this illustrated read-along seeks to re-create the popular Peanuts TV show of the same name. This edition also includes a four-song sampler CD from jazz-great Vince Guaraldi's brilliant soundtrack.

With illustrator Paige Braddock aping Charles Schulz's style, A Charlie Brown Christmas retells the Emmy Award-winning program blow-by-blow (with a few omissions), from the ice-skating opening scene to preparations for the school pageant to Charlie Brown's ill-fated Christmas tree rescue. Braddock almost perfectly mimics the show's cast and backdrops, but just as no one could be fooled by even expert impersonation of a loved one, Peanuts fans might find the niggling differences distracting (whether it's Schroeder's too-wavy hair or Pig Pen's just-too-small head).

A "novelization" like this probably can't ever hope to completely recapture the charm of the original, even if it had used Schulz's original art. Although the dialogue has been faithfully reproduced, much of the story's subtle appeal and cultural subtext gets lost in the book's simplified exposition--which is too bad, given that these are precisely the qualities which have made the show (and Schulz's timeless strip) so durable and well-loved in the first place. (Ages 4 to 8) --Paul Hughes

About the Author

Charles Monroe Schulz (1922 -2000) was a 20th-century American cartoonist best known for his Peanuts comic strip. He was born in St. Paul, Minnesota, to Dena and Carl Schulz. His nickname "Sparky" was given by his uncle, after the horse Spark Plug in the Barney Google comic strip. He attended St. Paul's Richard Gordon Elementary School, where he skipped two half-grades. As a result, he was the youngest in his class when he attended St. Paul Central High years later, which may have been the reason why he was so shy and isolated as a young teenager. After his mother died in February, 1943, he was drafted into the army and sent to Camp Campbell in Kentucky. He was then shipped to Europe two years later to fight in World War II. After leaving the United States Army in 1945, he took a job as an art teacher at Art Instruction Inc., which he attended before he was drafted. First published by Robert Ripley in his Ripley's Believe It or Not!, then in a series of chronicles, The Saturday Evening Post, his first regular comic strip, Li'l Folks was published in 1947 by the St. Paul Pioneer Press. (It was in this strip that Charlie Brown first appeared, as well as a dog that looked much like Snoopy). In 1950 he approached the United Features Syndicate with his best strips from Li'l Folks, and Peanuts made its first appearance on October 2, 1950. This strip became one of the most popular comic strips of all time. He also had a short-lived sports-oriented comic strip called It's Only a Game (1957-1959), but abandoned that strip due to the demands of the success of Peanuts.

--This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 32 pages
• Publisher: Little Simon (October 1, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0689853572
• ISBN-13: 978-0689853579
• Product Dimensions: 10 x 8.5 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.1 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,338,464 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Should have just reissued the original, December 7, 2001

By 

Stephen J. Van Hook (Bowling Green, OH USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A Charlie Brown Christmas (Paperback)

I love "A Charlie Brown Christmas" and so was completely disappointed by this paperback book edition of the story.
The "By Charles M. Schulz" on the cover and in the listing hides the fact that the text is not by Schulz, but is "adapted" by other people. The text adaptation is painfully bad -- I could barely force myself to read it to my child the other night. The text is way too wordy, which contradicts the whole style of Schulz's comic strip, and changes key dialog of characters.

The illustrations are okay, but why not just use the original drawings by Schulz himself?

A book version of A Charlie Brown Christmas was printed in the 1960's; the publishers would have been smarter to reissue the original book rather than create this new version.

If you want to have a book version of A Charlie Brown Christmas, I highly recommend that you spend a bit more money and buy the hardcover book, "A Charlie Brown Christmas: the Making of a Tradition". You won't regret it.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Good Grief!, It's Christmas Everyone., December 19, 2001

By 

tvtv3 "tvtv3" (Sorento, IL United States) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: A Charlie Brown Christmas (Golden Storybook) (Hardcover)

This delightful book successfully adapts the wonderful, classic television special of A CHARLIE BROWN CHRISTMAS to the page. The book is filled with many pictures from the special and most of the televised story remains intact in written form (about the only thing missing is Snoopy winning the decoration competition). The words and text to "Hark! the Herald Angels Sing" are even printed on the inside back cover. Children of all ages love this book and it is sure to be a family holiday favorite to read every year.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Nice product but not quite what I expected., November 8, 2011

By 

Andrea E. Journey "Tartberry" (My town, the World) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A Charlie Brown Christmas (Running Press Miniatures) (Hardcover)

This book was delivered in good condition and within the estimated delivery window. However, this book turned out to be about 2" square, and I was expecting a full-sized children's book instead of a decorator item. Mildly disappointing, since I love the Charlie Brown stories so much.