Through the Looking Glass Children's Book Reviews
The Adventures of Sophie Mouse: A New Friend
Illustrator: Jennifer A. Bell
Fiction Series
For ages 6 to 8
Simon and Schuster, 2015 ISBN: 978-1481428323
Spring has arrived in the forest and Sophie Mouse is excited because the new school year will soon begin. She and her best friend Harriet Frog spend some of their last vacation day playing at Forget-Me-Not Lake, and then they go to the bakery that Sophie’s mother owns to eat popovers.
The next day Sophie takes her little brother to her one-room school house for the first time. He is finally old enough to attend school now and he isn’t there long before he sees one of his friends and the two of them set off to find two desks together. Sophie and Hattie also gets desks together and that is where they are sitting, listening attentively to their teacher, when a new student arrives. All the young forest children are shocked to see that the new student is a snake!
They have all heard about snakes, but they have never met one before. Everyone is wary of Owen the snake, and at recess no one makes any effort to play with him. Sophie feels bad when she sees Owen sitting all by himself, but she also feels nervous about spending time with him. After all, he is a snake and Sophie has heard some stories about snakes that make her feel rather worried about them.
That evening Sophie tells her parents that a snake is coming to her school and instead of being upset, they are happy to hear this news. Apparently both Mr. and Mrs. Mouse used to know a very wonderful snake. Mrs. Mouse is surprised that Sophie would make assumptions about Owen when she does not even know him. Sophie knows that her mother is right, and wishes that she had asked Owen to play. She decides that she will make more of an effort the next day in school, but Owen never turns up.
In this charming first Sophie Mouse adventure the little mouse who loves to paint and spend time with her friends, discovers that it doesn’t pay to judge others. She also learns that sometimes wonderful friends can come in unfamiliar packages.
