Woodstock: A Bird’s Eye View is a 96-page book collecting 160-some strips featuring Woodstock. Of course, where you find Woodstock, you almost always find Snoopy, so there’s plenty of ol’ banana-nose for his fans, and very little of the other characters.

The book is generally the same format as other recent Ballantine paperbacks — all strips in black and white with page decorations in color (only yellow, in this case) — except that the book is smaller, about seven inches on each side. The strip covers a broad range of Woodstock’s appearances, starting in the three years he was around before Schulz gave him a name. The strip where his name was revealed is not included; in fact, his name appears rarely in the included strips. And for those wondering: no, we don’t get the rest of the Beagle Scouts.

When read all at once, the Snoopy-repeats-back-what-Woodstock-said rhythm gets a little repetitive, but that’s easy to avoid. Just don’t read it all at once! This book doesn’t make a good general intro to Peanuts, but it is a nice thing for the Woodstock fan. While Woodstock has been the focus of kids storybooks and his name has appeared in the title of strip collections, this is the first strip collection to focus specifically on him.

I’m still bothered by the cover, due both to the missing fourth leg of the chair and to the text refering to Woodstock as a “peanut”. But then, I’m picky.

Currently available at a 20% discount.

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