Jump to ratings and reviews
Rate this book

Peanuts TV Specials #1990

Why, Charlie Brown, Why? A Story About What Happens When a Friend is Very Ill

Rate this book
The members of the Peanuts gang have varying reactions when they learn that their friend Janice has leukemia and they follow her treatment and ultimate recovery.

Based on the CBS-TV special, Why, Charlie Brown, Why? explores what happens when a friend becomes very ill.

When young Janice is diagnosed with leukemia, Linus becomes her protector, Lucy
doesn't understand, Snoopy dons his "World's Greatest Surgeon" togs, and the whole gang does some soul searching.

Only Charles M. Schulz, the creator of Peanuts, could bring this tale to life. With sensitivity and warmth, he tells of the effect of Janice's illness on her family, her classmates, and of course, her friends.

64 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 1990

1 person is currently reading
70 people want to read

About the author

Charles M. Schulz

3,017 books1,616 followers
Charles Monroe Schulz was an American cartoonist, whose comic strip Peanuts proved one of the most popular and influential in the history of the medium, and is still widely reprinted on a daily basis.
Schulz's first regular cartoons, Li'l Folks, were published from 1947 to 1950 by the St. Paul Pioneer Press; he first used the name Charlie Brown for a character there, although he applied the name in four gags to three different boys and one buried in sand. The series also had a dog that looked much like Snoopy. In 1948, Schulz sold a cartoon to The Saturday Evening Post; the first of 17 single-panel cartoons by Schulz that would be published there. In 1948, Schulz tried to have Li'l Folks syndicated through the Newspaper Enterprise Association. Schulz would have been an independent contractor for the syndicate, unheard of in the 1940s, but the deal fell through. Li'l Folks was dropped from the Pioneer Press in January, 1950.
Later that year, Schulz approached the United Feature Syndicate with his best strips from Li'l Folks, and Peanuts made its first appearance on October 2, 1950. The strip became one of the most popular comic strips of all time. He also had a short-lived sports-oriented comic strip called It's Only a Game (1957–1959), but he abandoned it due to the demands of the successful Peanuts. From 1956 to 1965 he contributed a single-panel strip ("Young Pillars") featuring teenagers to Youth, a publication associated with the Church of God.
Peanuts ran for nearly 50 years, almost without interruption; during the life of the strip, Schulz took only one vacation, a five-week break in late 1997. At its peak, Peanuts appeared in more than 2,600 newspapers in 75 countries. Schulz stated that his routine every morning consisted of eating a jelly donut and sitting down to write the day's strip. After coming up with an idea (which he said could take anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours), he began drawing it, which took about an hour for dailies and three hours for Sunday strips. He stubbornly refused to hire an inker or letterer, saying that "it would be equivalent to a golfer hiring a man to make his putts for him." In November 1999 Schulz suffered a stroke, and later it was discovered that he had colon cancer that had metastasized. Because of the chemotherapy and the fact he could not read or see clearly, he announced his retirement on December 14, 1999.
Schulz often touched on religious themes in his work, including the classic television cartoon, A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965), which features the character Linus van Pelt quoting the King James Version of the Bible Luke 2:8-14 to explain "what Christmas is all about." In personal interviews Schulz mentioned that Linus represented his spiritual side. Schulz, reared in the Lutheran faith, had been active in the Church of God as a young adult and then later taught Sunday school at a United Methodist Church. In the 1960s, Robert L. Short interpreted certain themes and conversations in Peanuts as being consistent with parts of Christian theology, and used them as illustrations during his lectures about the gospel, as he explained in his bestselling paperback book, The Gospel According to Peanuts, the first of several books he wrote on religion and Peanuts, and other popular culture items. From the late 1980s, however, Schulz described himself in interviews as a "secular humanist": “I do not go to church anymore... I guess you might say I've come around to secular humanism, an obligation I believe all humans have to others and the world we live in.”

Ratings & Reviews

What do you think?
Rate this book

Friends & Following

Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!

Community Reviews

5 stars
36 (53%)
4 stars
20 (29%)
3 stars
11 (16%)
2 stars
0 (0%)
1 star
0 (0%)
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
Profile Image for Sophie Crane.
5,121 reviews175 followers
February 5, 2023
Only Charlie Brown and his friends can help us to understand what happens when one person has cancer in a very simple way. This is problably one of the best tales by Mr. Schulz. I recommend this book for kids and grown ups.
Profile Image for Amy.
667 reviews34 followers
November 9, 2020
It’s a very bittersweet but sweet story. It can definitely help kids better understand loved ones with cancer. It’s not my favorite piece, though, because it has several sad, dark elements, but the ending is very happy, and you’ll get a laugh out of snoopy!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Profile Image for Beverly.
406 reviews
December 1, 2022
Charlie Brown is great for all of us no matter what age we have attained.
Profile Image for Jacqui Ainsworth.
Author 2 books3 followers
March 18, 2008
An excellent book about childhood leukemia. Linus' friend has leukemia and the Peanuts characters learn about cancer and its treatment. The book is non-threatening but not too sweet or too obviously knowledge-centered.

I read it to my 5 and 8 yos. My mother is living with us while she undergoes treatment for breast cancer. I used this book as an opening for discussion. The kids enjoyed it and the 5yo wants to keep it for herself. I got it from the cancer center library so need to return it though.

I would recommend it to any kids who know someone with cancer or even those who might just be curious about it. I understand there is a movie for it as well.
Profile Image for Jessica.
182 reviews1 follower
April 25, 2023
This book definitely hits home for me!
Cancer runs in my family. My grandpa battled colon cancer for almost 40 years. Sadly, he died in 2001. One of my aunts is a 2 time breast cancer survivor. And my mom is going through chemo treatments for colorectal cancer.

A very touching story about Charlie Brown and Linus dealing with their feelings over their friend Janice (who I honestly think Linus had a little crush on) being diagnosed with leukemia.
Profile Image for Tawnya.
375 reviews49 followers
July 26, 2025
A gentle story from Charles Schulz that shows different facets of the pain that cancer can do to a child and their family. I was surprised that Linus stood up to bullies and even Janice's own sisters, as well as his own.
Profile Image for Lulu.
58 reviews
December 23, 2011
Snoopy and friends again! I love this little book- fun, sensible but not too preachy or tear-jerker kind. Recommended.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews

Can't find what you're looking for?

Get help and learn more about the design.