Review: Snoopy: Contact! by Charles M. Schulz

SUMMARY FROM NETGALLEY.COM:

Enjoy the Peanuts gang in another collection of cartoons especially selected for middle-grade readers.
Snoopy is one small dog with one huge imagination! From day to day, he can be found stalking the other Peanuts characters as a fierce ready-to-prey vulture, leopard, mountain lion, piranha, or creature from the sea. But his grandest flights of fancy are when he's airborne as the Flying Ace on his Sopwith Camel seeking out the evil Red Baron. His forays take him through the World War I French countryside in repeated attempts to achieve his quest. In Snoopy: Contact!, enjoy his adventures along with his other unusual encounters: catching bird burglars stealing his Van Gogh, challenging Lucy to an arm-wrestling contest, and becoming the Cheshire beagle.

MY TAKE:
If you're a fan of Snoopy's World War I pilot persona, you'll love this book.

In Snoopy: Contact!, readers can follow Snoopy's many adventures and fantasies, especially his favorite World War I pilot persona who regularly battles the Red Baron.

Honestly, before this book, I was only mildly interested in the World War I pilot Snoopy comics, but seeing them together in a collection like this, I have come to appreciate it better. I saw at least one joke that worked better for me since it relied on me having read a lot of the other comic strips in that story ARC.

There were plenty of other story lines, both short and long, here too. My favorites among them were the one about the bird art thieves, and the one about Linus and the Great Pumpkin. A lot of the comic strips featured here were already familiar to me, since I used to read the comics page every day. However, they were still able to make me laugh, proving that they really are classics.

I think the only story line that I wasn't too fond of was the part wherein Snoopy became the manager of the baseball team and he was very mean to the kids on his team. It was kinda weird seeing him like that.

Aside from the comic strips, the back section contains the following features that kids will likely be eager to see: glossary of flying terms, song lyrics to the song Snoopy sings, how to make a paper airplane and jet, ad how to make a flipbook. Another bonus: the book has flipbook animation drawn on the margin of its pages.

Thanks to NetGalley and Andrews McMeel Publishing for the e-ARC.

THE GOOD:

1. It's easier to appreciate the different story ARCs.
2. A lot of the included comic strips are funny.
3. The bonus section is an awesome extra feature for kids.

THE BAD:

1. I don't really remember if Woodstock was in any of the comic strips here. 

READ IT IF:

1. You're a fan of Snoopy.
2. You want to introduce your child to Snoopy and his friends.
3. You love books with bonus features. 

RATING:


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