Sophie Sleeps Over
Marisabina Russo
ISBN: 9781596439337
Flattened, slightly exaggerated bunny characters against white backgrounds or minimal scenery.
Sophie and Olive are best bunny friends at school, and Sophie is super excited to go to Olive's birthday party - her very first sleepover! Her parents offer good advice about what to bring, but Sophie doesn't want to bring her lovie - she's afraid Olive will think she's a baby.
Conflict looms when Olive's door is opened by a different bunny - Penelope - who claims that SHE is Olive's best friend! What's a bunny to do? Over the course of the afternoon, Sophie wavers between feeling like she's Olive's best friend to feeling like an unwanted third-wheel, and when the lights go out, she's way too worked up to sleep.
Resolution is a calm, moonlit meeting between Sophie and Penelope, who also is having trouble sleeping - it's her first sleepover too, and she's also a little worried about sharing Olive's friendship. When it's finally bedtime, the two of them have built a connection of their own, and are more at peace with the idea of being a trio, instead of two twoesomes.
This one is very much on the long side for me, but until complicated friendships and sleepovers are extinct, there's always going to be a need for sweet comforting informational books to help guide kids through their earliest forays into socialization.
I won't be using it for regular storytimes, but when I have a school tour or an older group, it's just about perfect. I will probably pair it with some of Kevin Henke's work, or the ever-maddening Betty Bunny by Michael Kaplan.
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