Good Sophie! Time Out for Sophie by Rosemary Wells

"NO, SOPHIE! NO THROWING SUPPER!

TIME-OUT FOR SOPHIE!"

Mama tries to be patient, but when that lovely  bowl of mac 'n' cheese hits the floor for the second time, Sophie is sent off to the thinking chair.

Later Daddy has the same problem. He's taking his rotation folding laundry and Sophie is "helping."

Just as Dad gets the stack of beautifully folded laundry into the laundry basket to deliver upstairs, Sophie "accidentally" knocks it off the dryer. Dad shows great self control as he patiently folds it all over again This is a good game, Sophie seems to say to herself as she manages to spill it all out of the basket AGAIN, this time creating a deliberate deluge of clean laundry all over the room!

Guess what happens next!

But Sophie seems not to have gotten the message. Later that day Grandma invites Sophie to sit beside her as they share a story. It's a sweet thought, but Sophie thinks grabbing Grandma's glasses and sticking them on her own nose is way more fun than a story. Grandma repossesses her glasses and tries again. Giggling, Sophie snatches them again and again, finally sticking them triumphantly on Bear's face. Is it time for time-out for Sophie again?

But Grandma tries another twist with her willful little trickster.

This time it's TIME-OUT for the grownup.

Grandma drops the book, takes herself to the rocker where there's no room for Sophie, crosses her arms, and rocks silently.

Sophie is astonished. Hey, this is no fun, she thinks. With concerned concentration she takes the spectacles off Bear and sticks them carefully back on Grandma's nose where they belong.

"NO TIME-OUT, GRANDMA!" 

Turning the tables on the mischievous Sophie seems to work this time, but with Rosemary Well's funny new toddler character, we just know there may be more time-outs in Sophie's future, in Time-Out for Sophie (Viking, 2013). Sophie is little mouse girl with that gleam in her eye that just says "Let's see what will happen if...." Parents who have had toddlers will recognize that exasperating merry prankster that lurks in every tot now and then, but author-illustrator Rosemary Wells knows how to portray toddlers and to show a loving family dealing with those episodes in Sophie's delightful debut. Wells' signature style is self-evident here in her illustrations, as with minimal text, she lets her characters' body language and expressive faces tell the tale so well.  More Sophie!

A Mind of Her Own: Sophie's Terrible Twos by Rosemary Wells

"HOW OLD IS MY SOPHIE THIS MORNING?" ASKED SOPHIE'S MOM.

SOPHIE KNEW...

BUT SHE WOULDN'T SAY.

"MAMA HAS A BEAUTIFUL DRESS FOR HER SOPHIE!" SAID MOM.

"NO PINK!" SAID SOPHIE.

It's her birthday. You'd think Sophie would be in a good mood.  But nothing pleases her--not a new dress, not Daddy's blueberry birthday pancakes, not new pink fairy wings to match the dress, not the new talking alphabet blocks that Granny has for her in pretty birthday wrappings. Clearly, as Mama observes, Sophie has gotten up on the wrong side of her crib and taken a turn down Grumpy Street.

Granny sees that things are not going well at Sophie's house.

"LET'S HIT THE ROAD!"

Granny pops Sophie into her motorcycle stroller and zooms off toward town before Sophie can protest, but even a stop at the usually exciting Learning Curve Toy Store for a better birthday present doesn't please Sophie. She's having none of the educational toys on their shelves either!

Then Granny has a different idea, one suited to Sophie's mood.

"HOW ABOUT A TIGER SUIT?" SAID GRANNY.

That's big YES (five of them, actually) from Sophie, the first positive thing she's said all day. And this time fortune smiles, as Zeke's Palace of Costumes has one size two tiger costume still in stock. Sophie growls, roars, and waves her clawed paws all the way home.

Like Maurice Sendak's Max, playing a scary something seems to be just what Sophie needs to get the wild thing within out, just in time for a happy second birthday party at last at Sophie's house, in Rosemary Wells' latest Sophie saga, Sophie's Terrible Twos (Viking Books, 2014). Wells' grumpy little gray mouse toddler is as endearing as she is exasperating, and Granny is just the right gal to figure out how banish the two-year-old grumpies, at least temporarily. Pair this one with Wells' delightful first story, Time-Out for Sophie (see review here) for a twosome of terrible two tales.