Schultz, Charles M. The Complete Peanuts: Volume 2 - 1953-1954. New York : Fantagraphics Books, 2004.
Plot: A collection of early Peanuts comic strips. The time period was especially notable for the series. Core characters such as Charlie Brown and Lucy enjoyed established roles. Steadily, Linus and Snoopy became more influential to the overall comic. Also, new additions, most notably "Pig-Pen" were introduced. However, other characters, such as Violet and Charlotte Baun eventually faded. Common themes, such as candy-sharing, golf, and play gunfights also became lost with time. The collection allows long-time fans to observe the growth of the comic from a newspaper strip to a major cultural phenomenon.
Genre: Comics, Growing Up
Reading Level: Grades 3 and up
Similar Titles: Krazy Cat, Calvin and Hobbes
Personal Thoughts: Like many U.S. newspaper readers, I grew up with the Peanuts. The older strips seem more character-driven than the ones I read as a child, though. By the time I could read, the characters and themes were established and seemed to quickly devolve into established memes (for example, Linus and his blanket or Charlie Brown versus the football) and lacked the developmental aspect of the first comics. However, I doubt the earlier comics would be popular among modern readers. True, the characters are more intriguing, but the references of the comics themselves no longer mean anything to tweens. Unfortunately, many aspects of the comics, such as mud pies, records, toy gunfights, games, and drawing on fences have gone the way of the aluminum Christmas tree. Modern readers will no longer have a reference to such themes, so the "jokes" of the comics become lost on the viewers. So while the characters lasted, time transformed their early world into a history lesson.
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