Sparky: The Life and Art of Charles Schulz

This is a fond, non-salacious, retrospective on the life and art of Charles Schulz, creator of the beloved Peanuts comic strip. It's obviously written by a fan of Schulz and Peanuts, a non-writer person, who does not delve into the less attractive aspects of Schulz's personal life, and conforms with what Schulz himself tried to project to the world at large.Nevertheless, it's a fun book to read with lots of pictures of Schulz in real life, at the drawing board, winning awards, and some of the famous comic strips.The only downside of the book is some of the comics presented are on the small side, so reading the bubble dialogue is not always possible.It made me want to buy books of the Peanuts gang, but these are divided into decades rather than one single volume of the complete works, which would be massive, since Schulz did this for 50 years.

This is a pleasant little mini-biography with photos from his life and some sample Peanuts cartoon strips. I got through it very quickly. The odd thing is, I'm not sure who the intended audience is. The text is not written for young children, but it doesn't seem to be written for adults either. The language is more simplistic than one would expect of an adult book. So I'm thinking maybe the ideal audience would be junior high/middle school level.

Nine out of ten books about the life of Charles M. Schulz, his artwork and the creation of Peanuts are well written and enjoyable. This is the 10th book - and it's very disappointing.Pure fluff and childish.

Bought this as a gift for our son who love Charles Schulz. He is 12 and has read it through and loves it. I have not read it myslef but from the things he relays to me it sounds like an interesting book on his life and art.The book is beautiful.

Loved learning a bit more about this beloved cartoonist. It was a delight to learn about what motivated him and how he reached down to the deep and made it simple for everyone to understand.

This book is a fascinating journey of a man who sets out to do what he enjoys for his whole life. A fun and entertaining read.

My grandson loved Sparky!

3rd grader used this book for biographical report and it had the right amount of illustrations and text with lots of interesting facts about Charles Schultz. It covers his early years and the evolution of the peanuts in an entertaining manner- without ever getting dry or dull.