Peanuts Classics stands among my favorite books from childhood. It's an impressive hardback book featuring at least 150 pages of Peanuts cartoons and a large portrait of Charles M. Schulz on the back cover. The book was released in 1970 and features comics from 1963 until the time of release, mixing Sunday edition color comics with everyday black-and-white comic strips.
There are some great storylines included in this collection. You get plenty of baseball action (including the story of Charlie Brown's team's two-game win streak), the low-down on those vicious kite-eating trees, plenty of examples of Lucy being her crabby self, and that's just for starters. Charlie Brown moons over the little red-haired girl, bemoans his loneliness and lack of success in basically everything, and always seems to come out the loser. Linus has to contend with a painful separation from his blanket on two occasions, Lucy suffers through TV withdrawal for an extended period of time, and at one point both of the Van Pelt siblings move away to another town. Lucy is just Lucy, practicing her grouchiness, conducting one actual "crab-in," and selling her psychological advice for a nickel a visit; surprisingly, she does manage to cure Snoopy from the state of "rejection-slip shock" he falls into after his publisher rejects his novel and also helps him get over his night-time fear of vampires. Sally, for her part, has to deal with wearing an eye-patch for her case of lazy eye, and Franklin and Peppermint Patty make their initial entrances into the Peanuts universe.
As usual, Snoopy tends to steal the show. This book contains many comic strips featuring the World War I flying ace, the world famous hockey player, the famous ice skater, the first beagle on the moon, and even Snoopy the private investigator (not to mention Snoopy the dangerous piranha) in action; it also documents his selection as Head Beagle, which is pretty much the pinnacle of canine success. Poor Charlie Brown just can't win for losing, though. He screws up at the big spelling bee, suffers through one horrible baseball season after another, and even misses out on his chance to become school vice president when would-be president Linus blows the whole election by delivering a big speech on the Great Pumpkin.
I imagine this book is pretty hard to find these days, but it is one of the most impressive and lengthy collection of vintage Peanuts comics that I know of; it is easily my personal favorite, a childhood keepsake that I will never part with.