When is A Charlie Brown Christmas on TV is one of those seasonal search terms that roars in popularity during the first week in December. It’s special because the show is one of those communal experiences that bring people together to watch it in their own homes. Much like the classic Crowded House album, we’re Together Alone and watching one of the great stories come to life. A Charlie Brown Christmas Pop-Up Edition brings the classic charm of the show into an heirloom book that will remain in your family for generations.
Generations is not hyperbole. We still have our version of A Charlie Brown Christmas when it was published in the ’70s. It’s a hardback book that still has the indentions of my elementary and middle school scribbling on its cover. For some families, their Peanuts books, be it a collection of their comic strips or one of their holiday books, are items that stay in their forever library without any question.
A Charlie Brown Christmas Pop-Up Edition feels like your best friend when you open it. The illustrations and colors are identical to what you remember and how they look on television. Linus is dancing with Sally. The kids are still laughing at Charlie Brown’s Christmas tree, and perhaps most importantly, the cloud of dirt still surrounds Pigpen while he’s playing the bass.
As a pop-up book, there are multiple elements that automatically come off of the page or can be opened or pulled up to reveal Peanut happiness. Once you open the book we see most of the Peanuts gang ice-skating. All you have to do is move the tab on the bottom left to see all of them move back and forth. The flap on the page opposite has Charlie and Linus contemplating the spirit of Christmas. When you pull that flap down Charlie is receiving advice from Peppermint Patty that is almost certainly not correct.
The next page is a gatefold that has Charlie Brown in front of Snoopy’s dog house. It’s a huge pop-up that evokes the same sense of frustration and empathy that you have whilst watching the show. Some of the pages contain full pop-up effects, and others have smaller pop-ups that might be ¼ or 1/8 the size of the page. A Charlie Brown Christmas Pop-Up Edition ends its final two pages with a dual gatefold that reveals iconic scenes that mirror the joy and happiness that the show brings us each year.
As a pop-up book it is similar to those from Matthew Reinhart. These pop-ups aren’t as intricate as his, but the two do vary in their layout and positions. The spine is a key element in pop-up book construction. In the case of A Charlie Brown Christmas Pop-Up Edition, it’s sturdy and approximately four times as thick as the pages. There is also enough of a gap that allows the pages to fully open, which is important in books like this. The interactive elements are on thicker-than-average paper and are durable enough for general use to not sustain any damage. For pop-up books, especially those that will have lots of use during certain times of the year, it’s important to keep in mind the core audience.
The text in A Charlie Brown Christmas Pop-Up Edition is on par for most eight-year-olds to be able to read it by themselves. Those younger than that might have difficulty in reading some of the text or be a bit too rough with the pop-up elements if they’re reading the book by themselves. Of course, that could be part of the fun for emerging readers. This is a great book that’s very well packaged and presented for those Peanuts fans. The age that you think it’s appropriate for will vary as to how long you want to keep the book and its pop-up elements perfectly. For us, we’re letting the nine and 11-year-old read the book at their leisure so that they can build their own forever memories. We’ll also say the same thing when the A Charlie Brown Christmas Hologram Edition is released in 2045 and our grandchildren want to read it.
A Charlie Brown Christmas Pop-Up Edition is by Charles M. Schultz and available on Simon & Schuster.
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