BOOKWORM

WHAT I HAVE BEEN READING LATELY

Homepage image by ELIOTT REYNA from Unsplash.

The Peanuts Papers, edited by Andrew Blauner, Library of America, $33.95. Key in Happy New Year and your smart phone will offer you options for gifs, including several from Peanuts, a strip that left a lasting impact on the lives of people around the world, on art and on culture.

There’s Snoopy blowing a trumpet to ring in the New Year, Lucy laughing at Charlie Brown, Linus playing his piano.

In The Peanuts Papers, thirty-three writers and artists reflect on the deeper truths of Schulz’s deceptively simple comic. Enchanting, affecting and personal, the essays reveal just how much Peanuts continues to mean to its many admirers, years after the last strip was published.

Lonely kids at school, the misfits, they connected with Charlie Brown. Others were attracted to the power of Lucy, to the genius of Linus, or to the quirky adventures of Snoopy. Kevin Powell shares how he dealt with the traumas of his life by purchasing A Charlie Brown Christmas at the suggestion of a counsellor who told him to find the things that made him happy as a child. He sat there and watched it alone and “cried, profusely, as all the memories came flooding back” to him.

Hilary Fitzgerald Campbell says, “We’ve all got a little Snoopy, Charlie Brown, and ultimately Schulz in us. Sometimes our similarities scare me. When I saw the new Peanuts movie a couple years back, I recognized myself so much in Charlie Brown that I came home in tears.”

David Hajdu writes about Skippy, the comic strip that Schulz himself was influenced by – the same strip that the peanut butter got its name from. Through stories and through comic strips on the comic strip, writers and artists share their connection.

In Good Grief, artist Janice Shapiro draws her own story. Actually, there were no adults at all in Peanuts, she writes. It was a purely make-believe kids’ world. And in 1966, as a frightened nine-year-old who could not find any reassurance of safety from the adults around me, the “Peanuts” world was where I longed to be.

The musical comedy You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown debuted in New York in 1967 and the title became a part of our lexicon for generations after. As did the phrase good grief. And Canadian cartoonist Seth (Palookaville), shares the story of his pilgrimage to Schulz’s home ground, to Santa Rosa, California, where Schulz lived and created the strip. “If anyone made me want to be a cartoonist, it was Charles Schulz.”

As editor Andrew Blauner writes in his preface, the contributors provide a dual perspective on Schulz’s fifty-year magnum opus. The writers explore the big picture, while being attuned to their own personal associations.

Adam Gopnik refers to a strip in which Charlie Brown tells Lucy that he sometimes gets so lonely he can hardly stand it and other times he longs to be completely alone. “I don’t know what to do,” he says. Lucy, in her psychiatric guise, says, “Try to live in between,” and quickly adds, “Five cents, please”. Live in between and pay your debts – if there is more wisdom in the modern world than that, no one has drawn it.

Ambedkar by Kieron Moore, Campfire Graphic Novels, $16.99. It is rare in human history when one man’s life changes the destiny of millions, writes Keshav Thirani, the founder of Campfire graphic novels.

It is perhaps equally rare that such a man’s life is presented in a graphic novel – but then Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar is a super hero after all. The graphic novel does a superb job of presenting the story of a man who was born “untouchable”, whose very shadow defiles others, who was denied the right to drink from the same well as the high-born, and who learnt from his father the value of education as a tool in fighting for one’s rights.

Ambedkar would go on to write the constitution of India, enshrining equal rights for everyone.

The graphic novel includes lots of fascinating, little-known facts about him and his family.

The Book Of Dreams by Nina George, Crown, $36. In her previous best-sellers, The Little Paris Bookshop and The Little French Bistro, Nina George had created magical, dreamlike landscapes.

In The Book of Dreams, she goes all out. Henri, a hardened ex-war reporter steps into the path of oncoming traffic while on his way to meet his son Sam for the first time in years. Rushed to the hospital, he floats, comatose, in a dreamlike state, with Sam at his bedside. A woman forced to confront her love for Henri and a 12-year-old coma patient just like Henri, they are all bound together inextricably as they fight for hope, for patience and for life.

A very human story that examines what we consider serious and painful and what we deem light and whimsy, this is a tender meditation on memory, empathy and grace. It looks at the lasting power of relationships and what we will find truly meaningful, once we are gone. A treat for Nina George’s fans.

100 Letters That Changed The World by Colin Salter, Universe, $40. You’ll find letters from Galileo, Abraham Lincoln, Darwin, Einstein, Winston Churchill, Nelson Mandela, Che Guevara, Bill Gates and even Greta Thunberg’s letter to Indian prime minister Narendra Modi.

How much change the last-mentioned letter wrought remains to be seen, but the letters are a fascinating window to the times in which they were composed.

Examples of fine penmanship and words of wisdom from the pages of history as well as current headliners. Letters from the ill-fated Titanic – though again, how they are perceived to have changed the world is hard to see – Leonardo da Vinci describing his skills to the Duke of Milan, a prospective employer; Henry VIII’s love letter to Anne Boleyn; Beatrix Potter’s letter to a five-year-old with illustrations that were the start of the Peter Rabbit tales.

With one glaring omission.

I happen to believe that there cannot be the one definitive list of anything, be it the top 10 best books or movies or songs, or anything else for that matter as it is all comes down to personal, subjective choice. One list may raise eyebrows while another may raise blood pressure. And yet, there are some names that just must figure on top lists and in this book, there is no letter from Mahatma Gandhi, the man who single-handedly changed the course of history. His nonviolent protests not only helped India gain independence, they showed the way for everyone from Nelson Mandela to leaders of the civil rights movement in the US and in other parts of the world. Even those who are not familiar with the scope and extent to his contributions, parrot lines attributed to him, as is evident in many beauty pageants where pretty young women chant, “be the change you want you see”. And yet, there’s nothing from Gandhi in this otherwise comprehensive collection.

Reminds me of another book, featuring another list, Fifty Thinkers Who Shaped the World by Stephen Trombley (Atlantic Books, $25). There, too, Gandhi is conspicuous by his absence, while actually being present on the cover in a collage of the thinkers!

But how can one not like a book on letters by someone who writes a letter to readers, proclaiming his love for this old-fashioned means of communicating?

I like a letter, sealed in an envelope, with a postmarked stamp, and delivered not to a virtual mailbox, but to a real one. Everyone writes emails these days and the letter seems to be on its way out. But however personal their contents, emails are never really personal, or private.

And right there he captures the magic of letters.

Peter and the Tree Children by Peter Wohlleben, Greystone Kids, $22.95. Peter the forester shows Piet the talking squirrel how to find tree children so he doesn’t feel so lonely any more.

They walk past areas where big machines have compacted the soil so much that little trees can’t grow in it, they pick wild berries, and Peter explains how trees “talk” to each other by releasing scents before finally coming to an old beech forest where they find freshly sprouted beech children. And in the end, they also find each other.

The acclaimed author of The Hidden Life of Trees and The Inner Life of Animals combines information from his books to present a beautiful way to raise environmental awareness in young children.

While Grandpa Naps by Naomi Danis, illustrated by Junghwa Park, Brooklyn, $17.99. Grandpa comes to visit on Sundays and when he naps in the hammock after lunch, Gilbert is assigned the job of watching over him.

“Make sure no flies bother Grandpa while he naps. Okay?”

Gilbert takes his responsibility seriously. Over the afternoon, we are introduced to other members of the family. The book is a sweet take on love, stillness and one’s place in a family.

TEEN REVIEW by SARAA SEEWAH

Miles Away from You by A.B. Rutledge, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, $25.99. Miles Away from You is an intense novel – otherwise known as a tearjerker – that draws out many emotions.

A. B. Rutledge writes the novel in a clever way. The story is told through a series of instant messages. The protagonist, Miles, writes these instant messages to Vivian, his girlfriend who is currently in a coma.

Miles falls for Vivian, who is a talented and dazzling transgender girl. However, unable to cope, she tries to commit suicide and is currently in a coma. After years, Miles tries to move on and goes to Iceland to overcome his loss. He discovers that taking pictures of Vivian’s treasured Doc Martens standing empty against the surreal Icelandic landscapes helps him with the healing process.

Miles Away from You embraces diversity; it includes LGBTQ characters and a relatable main character. It is a beautiful heartbreaking story that tells modern day problems in a realistic way.

• Saraa Seewah is a grade 10 student and a member of Brampton Library’s Teen Library Council.