Charlie Brown is one of the most consistently unlucky characters in Western fiction. The degree to which life and the universe conspire to dump misfortune directly on his head is the beating heart of Charles Schulz's Peanuts. If you've got any problems at all, you can see what Charlie Brown's up to and be slightly cheered up by the knowledge that at least you've got it better than him.

In almost 50 years, however, despite taking more Ls than a stuck typewriter, Charlie Brown almost never actually got mad about it. His style is more of a world-weary acceptance, verging on Zen calm. It's left to other characters to rage, cry, and question their lot. That's usually Lucy or Linus, but Charlie's little sister Sally Brown gets in her own swings at the fundamental unfairnesses of childhood.

When modern fans talk about Peanuts, all of Sally's best-remembered moments usually have to do with either her constant innocent windmill dunks on Charlie Brown or her deeply one-sided crush on Linus. On a reread, however, what really stood out about Sally is her antagonistic relationship with academia.

Sally is Peanuts' patron saint of unwilling students. Most of the rest of the Peanuts gang never seemed to mind their studies. ) If you were one of those kids who did their level best to try to wriggle out from under the burden of public schooling, Sally was your representation in the Peanuts crew.

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