Spend Some Time With Snoopy's Best Friend in Woodstock: A Bird's-Eye View

The word Woodstock has two immediate associations for me. The first is the massive rock and roll love fest that occurred 40 years ago. The second, and probably the more prominent, is the little yellow bird who is Snoopy's best friend in the Peanuts comic strips. He may be little, and his dialogue may be incomprehensible except through the filter of Snoopy's responses to him, but Woodstock is one of the most lovable birds ever to flutter his way into a reader's heart. In Woodstock: A Bird's-Eye View, he gets a book all to himself.

This collection has more than 90 pages of the feathery little fellow, almost always in the company of Snoopy. Each page has between one and three strips or panels, so without counting them all up, I'd guess there are somewhere in the neighborhood of 200 strips in the book, and humans appear in only half a dozen of them. None of the strips is in color, but some of them are printed against a yellow backdrop imprinted with white Woodstocks, while other pages feature a drawing of a yellow Woodstock somewhere on the white page. Sometimes he's flapping his wings, sometimes sitting contemplatively on a twig, sometimes taking to the air in his favorite manner - hot air balloon.

Alas, he may be a bird, and his best friend may fancy himself a World War I flying ace, but Woodstock is not too successful in most of his airborne adventures. He's so light, he has a tendency to tumble in the slightest breeze. If he's caught in an especially mischievous wind, he might end up in Snoopy's dog dish. Clinging to his canine friend is his best chance of staying put. Luckily, Snoopy is generally glad to oblige, though he does sometimes indulge in a bit of eye-rolling as his head turns into a nest or his nose becomes an umbrella rack.

The book delves into Woodstock's passions and anxieties, with Snoopy always acting as interpreter in case Schulz's very expressive drawings don't clue us in as to exactly what is going on. Woodstock loves singing, and his face usually breaks into an enormous smile whenever he chirps melodiously. He's a feisty guy whose determination leads him to kick relentlessly at a football that refuses to budge (a cute reversal of the traditional Lucy-holding-the-football-for-Charlie-Brown moment) and whose adventurous spirit takes him as far as the moon.

He has a zesty sense of humor but doesn't appreciate Snoopy making cracks about his size or subjecting him to bird-related puns. He often relies on Snoopy for help - to keep him dry in a rainstorm, for instance, or shield him from turkey hunters as Thanksgiving draws near - but also offers his assistance, especially during his stint as Snoopy's personal secretary. His services would be more useful if he could type a legible sentence, but it's the thought that counts...

Fans of the little yellow bird and the friendly white beagle will have a blast watching these two buddies pass the time in Woodstock: A Bird's-Eye View.