Friday, January 14, 2022

It goes without saying: Peanuts at its silent best

by Charles Schultz
2005 / 160 pages

There seems something almost wrong about using a multitude of words to recommend a wordless book so let me hit just a few highlights and be done. The brilliance in this "tour through fifty years of Peanuts pantomime strips" manifests in at least three different ways.

  1. This is all ages. With no words to struggle over, my 6-year-old, still-learning-to-read daughter enjoyed this just as much as me. Might this be a gem for a reluctant reader?
  2. This is unique. We're all used to the regular puns that populate the newspaper comics page and know what to expect, but the sight gags here are humor of a whole different sort, and that curveball is sure fun.
  3. This is art. Schultz does a lot with a little - not just wordless, but his artistic style is also sparse, and it is amazing to see what he can communicate with just a few lines here and there.

I'll only add that if you enjoy It Goes Without Saying, you might want to check out Garfield Left Speechless. (or, for a twist, Garfield minus Garfield...although that one will be above kids' heads).

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