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Good morning, Minnesota! This edition of our fair newsletter goes out to the bookworms and the Snoopy lovers 🐶 On to the news 📢

Lena Tokens/For The Minnesota Star Tribune

On the first day of Christmas, my colleagues gave to me:

🎵 Twelve works of fiction 🎵

🎵 Ten tales of true-life 🎵

🎵 Ten picture books 🎵

🎵 In a big list of literature 🎵

OK, so we haven't quite made it to the holiday season yet. But the Minnesota Star Tribune's resident bookworm, Chris Hewitt, and his retired predecessor Laurie Hertzel have already spun up a list of quality titles to help us through the coldest and darkest days of the year.

Behold the list of their favorite books of 2024!

I've been deep in Ta-Nehisi Coates' "The Message" for the last couple of weeks and this package already has me plotting out the rest of my reading list. The picture books should also make for great gifts — they're all from Minnesotan authors.

Check out the whole list here or by tapping or clicking on the illustration above. We've also linked to select reviews of our literature team's picks below.

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Jeff Wheeler/The Minnesota Star Tribune

Good grief: Today's edition of the Minnesota Star Tribune's reader-powered reporting project is one for the record books.

There was a time when the Mall of America's indoor amusement park evoked a more, shall we say, bucolic and easy-going aura than the slime-soaked shenanigans prevalent at Nickelodeon Universe. Yes, we're talking about Camp Snoopy. And this week's Curious Minnesota dives deep into the attraction inspired by hometown hero Charles Schulz's iconic comic strip.

Did you know that the park has been Nickelodeon Universe for longer than it was Camp Snoopy at this point? Reporter Greta Kaul has this and more interesting tidbits at the link here.

Hail to thee, Camp Snoopy!

@eastbankmpls via Bluesky

You know me: I'm a sucker for a good vintage photo.

And so it is that I present to you this fantastic series of images from Bluesky user East Bank Neighborhoods. These 30-year-old frames from Dinkytown take me back to a time when the streetlights set your curfew and video game controllers had two, maybe four buttons total. Click or tap on the image above to see the full series.

Before we adjourn for the weekend, a quick programming note: I'll be gone Monday and Tuesday. Zoë Jackson will be your pilot to start turkey week before I log back on to finish it out.

Eder Campuzano, reporter

David Taintor, editor