Book Review: Ca ne va pas, Charlie Brown

"Reruns, always reruns," I seem to hear someone grumble. "Aren't you reading any new books lately?"

The answer is that when I agreed to read and review a copy of a manuscript called Lost Books of the Bible I got a little more than I bargained for. I was able to skip some of the full-length books that are printed in "study" and Catholic Bibles, among the Apocrypha. Some other early Christian books that were circulated and admired, 1500 to 2000 years ago, but regretfully deemed not to belong in the New Testament because they conflicted with the canonical books of the Bible...are even longer. I have been reading a full-length book manuscript a day, and they're all going to be bound together and available in bookstores next week, and I want to read and fairly review all of them. The book, originally hand-printed on five scrolls, that I'm reading now, has almost 200 chapters. In the other collection of early Christian literature I own, the "books" were actually letters, printed in between a lot of historical commentary from the editor...I was expecting this forthcoming book to be like that, too, and it's not. Very little contemporary chitchat. Lots of nineteenth century translations from Greek, Hebrew, and Old Slavonic. I'm out of my depth but I've always found that an enjoyable way to learn.

Book Title: Ca ne va pas, Charlie Brown

Author: Charles M. Schultz

Date: 1970

Publisher: Holt Rinehart & Winston

ISBN: none

Length: pages not numbered; a thin paperback

Quote: "Quand je serai grand, je serai un grand docteur...le Willie Mays de la medecine!"

In 1970, Holt Rinehart & Winston offered three collections of "Peanuts" cartoons with the words translated into French or Spanish. One of these collectors' items was Ca ne va pas, Charlie Brown, translated from You Need Help, Charlie Brown.

What more do you need to know? This book includes such classic "Peanuts" moments as Linus telling Lucy, the would-be psychiatrist, "When your kind have disappeared, thumbs and blankets will last forever" (Quand ton espece aura disparu, les pouces et les couvertures seront toujours la).

Or Linus telling Snoopy, "You can't be happy all the time! There are always ups and downs! That's human...if you know what I mean." (On ne peut pas etre heureux tout le temps. On a toujours des hauts et des bas. C'est humain! Si l'on peut dire.)

Or Charlie Brown scolding Snoopy, "Other dogs jump for joy when their master comes home," and, when Snoopy goes into a ballet routine only a cartoon dog can do, observing, "I missed another good chance to keep my mouth shut" (J'ai encore perdu une occasion de me taire).

The French vocabulary in these cartoons is dead easy; even first-year students should be able to guess any unfamiliar words before looking them up. Classic cartoons are a painless way of learning vocabulary words.

So, this book is recommended to first-year students of French and to "Peanuts" collectors. Because it was a limited edition, it's neither easy to find nor cheap.