Oh to be in Love!

Charles Schulz, The World Publishing Company

United Feature Syndicate, 1968

After watching a PBS special on Schulz I view all his books, cartoons, and comics with different eyes and suddenly they all seem so much more sad. I know that humor often as its roots in tragedy and truly Charlie Brown is a tragic character. This book is great evidence of that.

It's in this story that Charlie discovers his love for the little red haired girl and he's trying to find the words to tell her. It makes him a little crazy and he does insane things like embarrass himself in front of the class by accidentally reading part of his love letter to her. He doesn't want to miss the last day of school so he overcompensates and sets an alarm for 4 am but then is so tired he falls asleep and misses the bus. When he gets to school he tries to impress her with his math skills but he's forced to admit he has no idea what he's doing. Poor Charlie Brown. The book ends with a message of hope, in the form of a note pressed into his hands in the midst of the end of school day, last day before summer vacation chaos.

Charlie Brown tried the old flower method, and as he plucked each petal from a nice white flower, he recited those words that were supposed to give him his answer: "She loves me, she loves me not, she loves me, she loves me not." He never really finished, however, for Linus broke in with a statement that sort of deflated the whole business.

"It is difficult for me to believe that a flower could ever have the gift of prophecy"