In which trek reviews Sophie's World and Sophie's Secret

I recently read Motorcycles, Sushi and One Strange Bookby Nancy Rue and I really enjoyed it; I'm looking forward to the sequel, Boyfriends, Burritos and an Ocean of Trouble,too, so when I saw that Ms Rue had two free children's books on the Kindlelimited time promotional list, I downloaded both Sophie's Worldand Sophie's Secretright away.

Sixth-grader Sophie LaCroix is a dreamer. It is hard for her to pay attention, to stay focused. In school, Sophie is struggling. She can't seem to stay focused long enough to finish her assignments. She drifts off, imagining herself as Antoinette, a Revolutionary War heroine, and the kids at her new school tease her for her daydreaming. Sophie misses her old school in Houston, Texas, but her father works for NASA and his job promotion included a transfer to Poquoson, Virginia.

Sophie's parents insist that she begin seeing a psychologist, Dr Peter, to help her deal with her difficulties in school. About the same time, she becomes friends with another new girl, Fionna, who shares her dreamy imagination.

There is considerable tension between Sophie and the popular girls in their class. The "Corn Pops" are subtle, sneaky bullies who thoroughly enjoy humiliating other. Between what she learns from her sessions with Dr Peter and her friendship with Fiona, Sophie pulls through.

This book is told from a very Christian perspective. Sophie's situation does change around her so much as she changes in order to be able to cope with circumstances more successfully. By the end of the story, the popular girls have been outed: the teachers are aware of their antics and putting a stop to them. Sophie's relationship with her stern father seems to have improved quite a bit. The reader is left with hope that things are looking up for Sophie.

In Sophie's Secret, Sophie is doing much better in school. She has begun to make more friends and her grades are all much improved: As and Bs all the way!

Sophie and Fiona become very interested in archaeology. Together with another girl in their class, Kitty, then dig through the trunks and boxes in Sophie's attic, putting together files of all of Sophie's family members - except Sophie.

The girls find pictures and records of Sophie's older sister, younger brother, mother, father, grandparents, and even some log-forgotten distant relations. Why aren't there pictures of Sophie? Sophie becomes convinced that her parents are hiding the fact that they adopted her.

While Sophie tries to find a way to ask her parents whether she was adopted, the popular girls begin a new campaign of harassment. To top off the tension, the situation between Sophie and her dad, so hopeful at the end of Sophie's World, seems to have regressed. Sophie's father puts a lot of pressure on her to excel in school. He wishes that she would try out for sports like her older sister, Lacie. When Sophie brings home a permission slip to enter the Gifted and Talented program at school, instead of congratulating her, Sophie's dad says he'll have to think about it, that he isn't sure she will be up to the challenge. Sophie is crushed. This only increases Sophie's her conviction that she is adopted.

At first, Sophie is very resentful of her father's attitudes but in her sessions with Dr Peter; she realizes that she can decide to be a respectful daughter and that this can be the way to change her dad's perspective. Dr Peter also convinces her that she needs to tell her father how she feels, rather than simply bottling up her anger.

There are some really good themes in these books, including loyalty, honesty, positive self-image, academic excellence, and spirituality. Sophie learns a lot about herself, about her ability to rise above the difficulties she encounters. There is a great deal of character development between the covers of these short books, as well. I was, at first, a little disappointed that all of the progress between Sophie and her father seemed to disappear between the two books. Upon reflection, though, I realized two things: (1) the target demographic for this series is girls between third and sixth grades; and (2) people really do behave like that and relationships need an awful lot of work to grow.

Neatnik has begun reading Sophie's World on her Kindle for PC Clientand I've already downloaded both to her Christmas present- shh, don't tell!