An okay book, but relys too much on gimmicks and not enough on the comic strips themselves. The result: an overpriced book with a lot of little toys in it which keeps you wanting more Charlie Brown.

"Insights from the Outfield" is a pretty good idea for a "Peanuts" collection from Charles Schulz. After all, for decades America's loveable loser Charlie Brown trudged out to the mound to pitch his team to the longest losing streak in the history of western civilization. If you are a true aficionado of "Peanuts" then you should be able to remember where everybody played: Schroeder was the catcher, Snoopy and Linus the keystone combination, and Lucy offered the titular insights from the vantage point of the outfield. More importantly you should be able to recall some of the classic baseball strips (should Charlie Brown try to steal home? Can Linus really play while holding his blanket?). There is a veritable gold mind of "Peanuts" baseball strips out there, all of which are imbued with the gentle wit and wisdom of one of the great cartoonists.

The only problem is that in "Insights From The Outfield" there is a grand total of only ten "Peanuts" cartoon strips in this slim volume. To be fair four of them are longer ones pulled from the Sunday funnies, but that is a mere pittance for all the gold that is in them thar hills. Besides, as the book itself observes halfway through, most of what happens takes place on the pitching mound and not in the outfield (but it is the contrast of INsights with the OUTfield that is supposed to hook you). Consequently, what we have here amounts to simply warming up before the start of the game. There is a wonderful book to be written about the humor and spirit of America's favorite pastime from the pen of Charles Schultz, but this is not that book.

That book should be published and it should be written by someone who does more than put a few comic strips together by simple categories and blows up some panels larger than others to help drive home a point. This idealized volume does not need to be as academic as "The Gospel According to Peanuts," but in addition to collecting our favorite strips on the subject it should also provide commentary. After all, the approaches of Charlie Brown, Snoop and Lucy to the game are as diverse as those of Marvelous Marv Throneberry, Mark "The Bird" Fydrich, and Tyrus Raymond Cobb (How can you have a "Peanuts" book on baseball that does not mention Joe Slobatnik?) They deserve to be explored in something closer to extra innings than simply this little warm up on the sidelines.

When I was a child growing up in the 80's, I had bought the 1982 version of "Kiss her, you blockhead!". I must have read it 50 times! It was definitely a "5 stars". It was twice as big as this 90's version and had many more comics that included Snoopy as the flying ace and Linus' younger brother Rerun, as well as some other funny pages. Somewhere along the line I had misplaced the original book, so I recently bought another copy. Well I was dissapointed after reading it once to notice that there were many pages from the original book missing in this edition. I was wondering if anyone had an answer as to why some of those original comics would be omitted from this?

This is the 12th book of a collection of reprinted dayly and Sunday coloured strips from the 1960s and edited by Burulán. The book contains about 25 pages of Peanuts strips and 35 pages with another comic characters called "Los cebollitas". The reprinted strips from 1960 tell the following stories: Linus and his new library card, Snoopy and its antiravic vaccine, and the famous strip in which Lucy says: "happiness is a warm pupy". The book is in spanish and it's a rare book to get because it was edited in 1971.

I am 19 years old and this is a children's book, so to say that the storyline interested me would be a little bit of an exaggeration. However, I am an avid motocross racer, and to see how a famous cartoonist portrayed motocross in 1976 was extremely interesting. For most people, this book will hold little or no interest. For young kids who like motorcycles, this book would probably fall apart before they tired of reading it. For me, it was neat to look back 25 years and see a tidbit of motocross history and marvel at the changes.

I was warned by a bad review of this book, and bought it anyway because I liked the Gospel According to Peanuts by the same author.

Short has become an apostate. This book amoung other things claims that satan doesn't really exist, and is just another side of the almighty God.

I assure you satan does exist, and is going to be shortly bound a thousand years. This isn't a Christian book.

Which is too bad, because it takes away from Charles Shultz own Christian cartoons, and in particular the much beloved Christmas special, A Peanuts Christmas.

I suggest getting that video, and ignoring this book.

I had to read it to believe [the] review since I too read "The Gospel According to Peanuts" by Robert Short and found the same results when comparing these two books by Short. It's an ironic joke how Short emphasizes the importance of knowing the bible while he doesn't notice his own failure at knowing enough to write accurately upon Christian doctrine. For example, Short is correct about his explanation how man really doesn't have the free will to choose God since God is sovereign and elects whom He predestines. The problem comes when Short claims there is no future Judgment Day and no future hell. My question for him to answer is, "What has God saved His children from if it isn't eternal damnation?" Another confusion Short doesn't realize he creates through this book comes from the false doctrine of Jesus having died for each and every person who ever is/was conceived and using that as his explanation for why there will be no person to be punished by God's wrath for sin. He failed to point out how the context of how the word "all" is meant in the verses he focuses on. The sense of all as to eliminating the exclusion of certain groups of people compared to the meaning of each and every individual is an immensely vital concept to reveal for understanding the true humility behind, "Therefore but by the grace of God go I into heaven while others do NOT receive His gift of mercy." The fact is most people don't think they need mercy because they think there is nothing to fear from God and again this book doesn't help to bring someone to realize their need to drop to their knees in repentance begging for it before it is too late. True love warns others of imminent danger while the selfish person only seeks to be popular by talking about only things which are pleasing to hear and will make the speaker popular. The Old Testament contains plenty of examples of prophets rejected or accepted by people. Learn the lesson of what human nature tends to want to hear and then compare it against what God has to say. If only Short used his own advice on childlike faith to write this book rather than expressing childish faith in what he is teaching.

Theologians don't usually get enough credit for showing all they know. In the case of Robert L. Short, this book, on THE BIBLE and Peanuts, may be expected to generate comments on religious doctrines, like my own tendency to suggest that it suffers from single savior syndrome, as churches tend to do. This can go on until the Hegelian cows come home, but the fundamental matter actually gets discussed in Chapter 9 of this book, on "the experience of a broken heart." (p. 38) The kind of sense which Short is trying to make comes out as an inner dialectic on precisely this point. "Indeed, it's the purifying and purging and hellish fires within the broken heart that boil down the Bible's message into what is most essential and necessary for us to understand for our heart's peace." (p. 41) For my own good, it is nice to know that a comic strip in which Lucy van Pelt offers flawless advice for 5 cents, with "THE DOCTOR IS IN" showing on the front of her neighborhood shrink booth in five of the panels of that strip, can be seen on page 45 of this book, and helps make psychiatric care a contender for those who need some support in order to seem more respectable, even if her final comment is "BACK ALREADY? WHAT HAPPENED?" The effort to deal with profound matters in the tensions of our times shows up best for me in the Notes on pages 141-2. Note 11 shows that his quote of Oscar Wilde was from the poem, "The Ballad of Reading Goal," not a matter to be taken lightly.

I agree with previous reviewer, I wish I had seen that review before ordering as the size was NOT given and this is too small.

I agree with the other reviews. I rely on my wall calendar every year, and was unaware that this one was a miniature when I ordered it. I hope next year they'll make a full-size Peanuts calendar.

I have been a lifelong fan of Charles Shulz's Peanuts cartoon strip. For years, it has been a tradition for me to hang a Peanuts wall calendar in my kitchen with a different comic strip for each month. Over recent years, however, they have become increasingly difficult to find. This calendar is exactly the format I prefer -- not just a picture of one of the characters, but with a comic strip. However, it is a miniature wall calendar and not a full-size calendar. I wondered about it when I read the description for this item and couldn't find any dimensions given for its size, but took a chance because I was having no success elsewhere. It's perfect, except for the size.

This is a hardcover book showing the collected writings of Snoopy. It is a compendium of cartoons, publishers' rejection letters, visual jokes, and a mercifully short story, which rounds out this little tome. Written tongue in cheek and only numbering about sixty pages in length, it is strictly for die hard Snoopy fans. Anyone else will be disappointed.

In this little book, which reads as though it were slapped together with as much as ten minutes' thought process, Sally Brown admires a neighbor's pine tree; it's perfect in size and shape, and is (by her accounts) begging to be decorated in her house. The dilemma - it's in the neighbor's yard, not hers. She hopes for a miracle, and hey presto! The tree falls, and Sally feels that it belongs to her. No dilemma, no mental anxieties over removing the tree, it simply belongs to her. The "showdown" between Sally and the neighbor is a remarkable display of mediocrity.

My kids, bless their hearts, hated the book. However, I can't give any kisd' book less than two stars because, if nothing else, it gets them reading. Sheesh.

I think this book could be educational, but also could be confusing. The book has a stroy line but I didn't find it very interesting. I think it does however tell children that even if they think that they can't do somthing that they should go ahead and try anyway to see if they could actually do it. This book seems to use some violent words such as "stuid" in it which I don't think that children need to be calling other children. There is also a reference to violent children towards other children, I understand the fact that Lucy is a bully but children don't need to use violence to get their point across. I wouldn't recommand this book to be read to your children.