Review Detail

Happiness is a Warm Puppy

Middle Grade Fiction 335

A Happy Trip Down Memory Lane

February 04, 2022 (Updated: July 06, 2026)

Overall rating

5.0

Plot

5.0

Characters

N/A

Writing Style

N/A

Illustrations/Photos (if applicable)

5.0

Originally published in 1962 as a gift book, this Penguin Workshop edition is a great recreation, down to the cloth-over-board cover. Holding this in my hands immediately took me back to my childhood, when Snoopy was in the daily paper, skating at the Icecapades, and hanging out fighting the Red Baron on greeting cards and posters.

The text is simple. Happiness comes in many forms, and the ones listed speak to things that are especially comforting to children. Night lights. Being able to reach the doorknobs. Knowing all of the answers. There are a few that don't hold up as well (what's wrong with green jelly beans?), although it can be argued that happiness is INDEED "thirty-five cents for the movie, fifteen cents for popcorn, and a nickel for a candy bar"!

Good Points

The colors-- hot pink, bright orange, and harvest yellow-- recreate the feeling of the 1960s, and Schulz' simple line drawings of his famous Peanuts characters to accompany each happiness are very evocative. This is a great nostalgic gift to an older person, but also a way for younger children to be introduced to the subtle philosophy of Charlie Brown and his friends.

I did find myself wiping away a tear when I read "Happiness is lots of candles". This is true, and given Schulz' enduring legacy after his death on February 12, 2000, on the day his last comic appeared in the paper, it's clear that the world would have been a better place if he had had more of them.