Some works of fiction, after enchanting countless readers, become classics, a touchstone of culture for generations. I would submit “Peanuts”, created by Charles Schulz, as one of these classics.
The existential struggles of the boy named Charlie Brown, the adventures (real and imagined) of his beagle, Snoopy, and the rest of the Peanuts gang, seem timeless.
Charlie Brown wants to fly his kite, but it is always getting “eaten” by the “kite-eating tree.” He pitches for a baseball team that never wins. He tries to kick a football, but it is always removed at the last moment.
And yet, Charlie Brown soldiers on.
I first read Peanuts in dusty paperback books kept in the spare bedroom at my grandparents’ house. Through lazy Sunday afternoons or the occasional sleepover, I learned the names of all the Peanut characters and their defining traits.
My favorite was Schroeder, the virtuoso on his tiny piano. I even had a watch with piano keys on the plastic band and Schroeder on the watch face, pounding out his music as the second hands ticked by. I loved that watch so much – I wore through the plastic wristband, replaced it, and wore through it a second time.
When I read Peanuts Treasury, it transported me back to a time when my biggest concern was finishing my homework before the end of the weekend and to a sense of comfort that family members who loved me were just in the next room. It was a nice escape from the current reality, where my biggest concerns seem so impossibly out-of-my-hands and loved ones are all in their separate spaces.
Recommended for readers who are looking to spend a few hours away from this world and in the life of a boy who never succeeds and never ever gives up.
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