Born to Draw Comics: The Story of Charles Schulz and the Creation of ‘Peanuts’

Fittingly, pictures and text pull equal weight in this warm and perceptive portrait of Schulz’s life. As a child in 1920s Minnesota, “Sparky” eagerly reads newspaper comics with his parents and draws likenesses of his favorite characters on paper scraps. Wadsworth reveals that Schulz displayed a quirky imagination early on; his incongruous drawing of a man shoveling snow alongside a palm tree elicits high praise from his kindergarten teacher. Intriguing anecdotes and visuals track the origins of the Peanuts comic strip (inspired by the cartoonist’s own hound’s “naughty adventures”), in which, purposely, “The girls were as big and strong as the boys.” In polished, mixed-media full-page and panel art, Orback deftly integrates references to Schulz’s work into scenes that convincingly evoke the era and the celebrated cartoonist’s earnestness and devotion to his craft. Ages 5–9. [em](Nov.) [/em]