So I’ve talked about Sophie before, but there’s been a couple books since then. This being the second one. And it’s really good.

Let’s Be Real…

Every Sophie book is good, but this one might be one of the best. It’s a pretty good example of not just a Sophie book, but chapter books in general. Maybe it’s more interesting to me because I’m in for the Sophie long haul. I’m probably the only person besides the author that’s outlined every book in the series.

To summarize, Sophie wants to see the sunflowers bloom at a party with all her friends. They’re not able to come for various reasons. What’s a Sophie Mouse to do? I won’t spoil it so you can read it for yourself. I’m just gonna talk about the things that set this book apart from the others.

The Sunflowers Are Huge!

Because mice are small! I’m always impressed how size-accurate Green and Bell keep everything in the series. We just don’t see it that often. Everything is usually mouse-sized, because all of her friends are. So when we see things that would normally be much bigger, they really stand out. Book 8 does the same thing with the baby bear (spoilers).

Sophie’s Mouse Senses Are Back!

Her whiskers twitch when they’re near the mulberry bushes they were looking for. Winston even uses his whiskers to predict the weather in this book too! Sophie also demonstrated a similar sense of smell in book 3. Neat details.

Piper’s In It! A Lot(-ish)!

You know, Piper Hummingbird? One of Sophie’s coolest friends that has never prominently featured in a book so far? Even Ellie got a book before her. She’s in this! Piper, I mean. And her mom too!

I really appreciate that these secondary characters Green keeps mentioning are starting to matter more. Even Lydie, Sophie’s best friend’s older sister, got multiple lines and was featured semi-semi-prominently in book 21. I hope this keeps being a trend. Just don’t forget Pippa.

Sophie Gets Mad For The First Time Ever!

Like, really mad. I don’t have a picture for this one, because I don’t think anyone should bear to see Sophie mad ever. Jealous or upset, sure. “Bubbling over with anger…” and “…huffed up to her bedroom…”? Perish the thought.

Getting mad also recently happened to everyone’s favorite vampire-fairy Isadora in book 20. I guess twenty+ books is the minimum amount of time it takes a nice character to finally be able to become mad.

Sophie Paints Sunflowers With Daylilies!

This is a huge extremely minor detail, trust me. And also something I don’t have a picture for, because the pictures are in black and white and aren’t painted.

Sophie paints a lot. Every book even ends with one of her paint jobs featured. So much so that the author takes time to point out what flowers and other plants Sophie uses to make her paints. Her go-to yellow color in every book is sunflower yellow, except for this book! Because the sunflowers just bloomed, so she probably doesn’t have any petals to make paint out of yet. What a cool detail.

Don’t Get The Wrong Idea…

I read this book the week it came out in June. I just didn’t know if I could come up with enough content for an article. As always though, Sophie provides. If you haven’t read a Sophie Mouse book yet, maybe she can provide for you too. You can’t really go wrong with any of them.