Nest Friends: Ready-to-Read Level 2

by Charles M. Schulz

Snoopy and Woodstock become roommates in this Level 2 Ready-to-Read based on the new Apple TV series, The Snoopy Show!Snoopy accidentally smashes Woodstock’s nest and feels terrible. But then he has a great idea—Woodstock can move into Snoopy’s doghouse and live with him! After all, they’re best friends; what could possibly go wrong? © 2021 Peanuts Worldwide LLC

Genres: Childrens

32 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 31, 2021

About the author

Charles Monroe Schulz was an American cartoonist, whose comic strip Peanuts proved one of the most popular and influential in the history of the medium, and is still widely reprinted on a daily basis.
Schulz's first regular cartoons, Li'l Folks, were published from 1947 to 1950 by the St. Paul Pioneer Press; he first used the name Charlie Brown for a character there, although he applied the name in four gags to three different boys and one buried in sand. The series also had a dog that looked much like Snoopy. In 1948, Schulz sold a cartoon to The Saturday Evening Post; the first of 17 single-panel cartoons by Schulz that would be published there. In 1948, Schulz tried to have Li'l Folks syndicated through the Newspaper Enterprise Association. Schulz would have been an independent contractor for the syndicate, unheard of in the 1940s, but the deal fell through. Li'l Folks was dropped from the Pioneer Press in January, 1950.
Later that year, Schulz approached the United Feature Syndicate with his best strips from Li'l Folks, and Peanuts made its first appearance on October 2, 1950. The strip became one of the most popular comic strips of all time. He also had a short-lived sports-oriented comic strip called It's Only a Game (1957–1959), but he abandoned it due to the demands of the successful Peanuts. From 1956 to 1965 he contributed a single-panel strip ("Young Pillars") featuring teenagers to Youth, a publication associated with the Church of God.
Peanuts ran for nearly 50 years, almost without interruption; during the life of the strip, Schulz took only one vacation, a five-week break in late 1997. At its peak, Peanuts appeared in more than 2,600 newspapers in 75 countries. Schulz stated that his routine every morning consisted of eating a jelly donut and sitting down to write the day's strip. After coming up with an idea (which he said could take anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours), he began drawing it, which took about an hour for dailies and three hours for Sunday strips. He stubbornly refused to hire an inker or letterer, saying that "it would be equivalent to a golfer hiring a man to make his putts for him." In November 1999 Schulz suffered a stroke, and later it was discovered that he had colon cancer that had metastasized. Because of the chemotherapy and the fact he could not read or see clearly, he announced his retirement on December 14, 1999.
Schulz often touched on religious themes in his work, including the classic television cartoon, A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965), which features the character Linus van Pelt quoting the King James Version of the Bible Luke 2:8-14 to explain "what Christmas is all about." In personal interviews Schulz mentioned that Linus represented his spiritual side. Schulz, reared in the Lutheran faith, had been active in the Church of God as a young adult and then later taught Sunday school at a United Methodist Church. In the 1960s, Robert L. Short interpreted certain themes and conversations in Peanuts as being consistent with parts of Christian theology, and used them as illustrations during his lectures about the gospel, as he explained in his bestselling paperback book, The Gospel According to Peanuts, the first of several books he wrote on religion and Peanuts, and other popular culture items. From the late 1980s, however, Schulz described himself in interviews as a "secular humanist": “I do not go to church anymore... I guess you might say I've come around to secular humanism, an obligation I believe all humans have to others and the world we live in.”

Reviews

[Jose Gallegos · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thought it was a good book. because when snoopy blew off the nest he told Woodstock to be nest buddies. But it wasn't a good idea after all.

Erendirani Gallegos 7yrs old

[Becky B · Rating 3 out of 5]

Snoopy gets carried away with a leaf blower to combat the deluge of leaves falling on his house, he accidentally makes Woodstock homeless. To make things right Snoopy invites Woodstock to be his roommate, but will these 2 friends still be friends after living together?

The flow of this felt odd. I thought Snoopy was going to make all the messes he made with the leaf blower right, but he only helped Woodstock. And then the roommate clashes took things in an unexpected direction with weird roommate problems...and a conclusion that didn't seem to solve the root problems. It was entertaining. And I'm not sure why anyone hasn't thought of a plot line involving someone getting too carried away with leaf blowing before. That was fun. This was just so-so overall.

[Lisa Burris · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm glad that Peanuts is being revisited for a new generation, and I think the new creators in the franchise are paying appropriate homage to the world that Charles Schulz created. That being said, this particular book for beginning readers does well teaching children compromise. Snoopy is playing with a leaf blower when he accidentally blows Woodstock's house down. Contrite, he invites Woodstock to live with him, but, as much as they love each other, Woodstock and Snoopy have different interests and their personalities begin to clash. When something unfortunate happens to Snoopy's house, in turn, the friends learn to compromise and, so, mend their friendship.

[Nicola · Rating 3 out of 5]

Miss 7 enjoyed reading this and wishes our library had many more of these Snoopy books.

Miss 7 and I like to explore different books and authors at the library, sometimes around particular topics or themes. We try to get different ones out every week or so; it's fun for both of us to have the variety and to look at a mix of new & favourite authors

[Natalie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sometimes friends fight. In this story, Snoopy and Woodstock fight a lot. How will their friendship mend?

This was an ok read as the ending doesn't really address the reasons why the two fought in the first place.

[PottWab Regional Library]

SM

[Jessica · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cute story! Snoopy and Woodstock were BFF so of course, Snoopy thought nothing could go wrong with letting Woodstock live in his doghouse for a short while. But since Snoopy's a dog and Woodstock's a bird, they both naturally have very different ways of living and thinking.