The Horn Book Guide

PICTURE BOOKS

Averbeck, Jim

One Word from Sophia

36 pp. | Atheneum | June, 2015 | Trade ISBN 978-1-4814-0514-0 $17.99 | Ebook ISBN 978-1-4814-0515-7

(4) K-3 Illustrated by Yasmeen Ismail. Sophie's "One True Desire" for her birthday is a giraffe. She tries different approaches with her adult family members, tailoring her arguments to each person's profession or personality. After being told she's too "verbose," "effusive," and "loquacious," she follows Grand-mamá's advice and gets to the point: "Please." The Raschka-esque watercolor and colored-pencil illustrations are more compelling than the unnecessarily wordy text. Glos.

Reviewer: Lauren Causey