The Great American Story of Charlie Brown, Snoopy, and the Peanuts Gang!

Perkins, C. (2017). The Great American Story of Charlie Brown, Snoopy, and the Peanuts Gang! New York: Simon Spotlight.

48 pages, Grade 1-3, Comics&Graphic Novel/ History, ISBN 9781481495547

Charles M. Schulz, the cartoonist of Charlie Brown, Snoopy, and the Peanuts gang, liked drawing since he was little. In high school, he took a cartoon course and even after graduating from high school, he continued drawing. His mother was very sick, and before he left for army service, she told him that if the family got another dog, they should name him Snoopy. After returning the army, he polished his cartooning skills. His comic strip named Peanuts was published by many newspaper companies and became very popular. The Peanuts gang was animated for a commercial for the Ford Motor Company. While a TV producer wanted to make a documentary about the comic strip, many TV networks did not want to broadcast the documentary. However, luckily, Coca-Cola wanted to sponsor a special program for the holiday season. Then, a Peanuts Christmas cartoon hit. Even after Charles passed away, the popularity of the Peanuts cartoons has never stopped.

 This book has information that probably many people do not know about Charlie Brown, Snoopy, and the Peanuts gang. It is was to know about the hidden story. It is surprising that many TV networks did not want to broadcast the documentary of the comic strip. I think Charles experienced a lot of excitement and anxiety in his life. This book explains about his life very briefly, but if you read it thinking what was going on at that time, you will realize that there were lots of dramas until the animation came out on TV. Yuki Konno