Book Review: Ca ne va pas, Charlie Brown

A Book You Can Buy From Me

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.

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.