Books like Sophie's Tom

That's odd.I really enjoyed Sophie's Snail, and only a few weeks have passed between the time of that story (summer into autumn) and this one which begins at Christmas, Sophie's fifth birthday. Oddly enough, Sophie starts school at the end of the Christmas vacation, but she lives in the UK, maybe it's different there.I have to say, though, I didn't find Sophie at all charming in this book. From being a stolid but sensible little girl, she has become selfish and bossy. She "makes friends" with the smallest kid in her class, basically because she can make him do what she wants, and when he doesn't, she gets physical. She ploughs through any resistence to what she wants by anyone--teachers, classmates, parents alike are all objects of her withering scorn as "stupid, silly and sickening." I grew up with a father who disliked cats, and I'm here to tell you, Sophie's way of getting around him would not have worked with a parent! A different illustrator means that the pictures were less lively and endearing, as well. I can't say I'd want a child I liked to choose Sophie as a role model. But then I've found King-Smith's sequels to be pale shadows of the first ideas.A disappointment.Two and a half stars.