Sophie's Window

By Holly Keller

Book Overview

Ordinarily, dogs and birds are not the best of friends. However, as Keller's masterful picture book illustrates, sometimes the most lasting friendships are to be found in the most unusual... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 006056282X
• ISBN13: 9780060562823
• Release Date: August 2005
• Publisher: Greenwillow Books
• Length: 32 Pages
• Weight: 0.79 lbs.
• Dimensions: 10.0" x 0.3" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

The Flight of the Pigeon

Young pigeon Caruso is anxious about learning to fly, although his relaxed parents aren't pushy: "Tomorrow" would be good enough. Tomorrow comes today, however, when a strong gust of wind blows Caruso off the roof and onto the apartment balcony of mellow dog Sophie. Sophie seems unconcerned, or, at least, ignorant of the difficulty of that first flight. SHe disappears to eat lunch (well, she IS a dog), and then helps Sophie find her way back home. Caruso is skeptical, "How will you find it?" In a great dog-literate line, Keller's Sophie replies, "A dog knows the streets." The middle section, in which the bird rides Sophie's back to her building, and they get to the roof via elevator, seems too much like filler. There's no real excitement here, nor do we get any insight (or laughs) related to the animals' personalities. However, the watercolor pictures remain compelling: Unusual illustrations of rooftops, a dog's-eye perspective of the street (all those shoes), the pulleys underneath an elevator, and the rooftop hutch in which Caruso and his parents live... Frankly, it's these pictures, painted in beautiful colors (especially the sky blue) make the book more than its story. Caruso misses his canine friend, and one day--looking much bigger and much more confident, he flaps "harder and faster and harder and...He was flying! (Accompanied by another lovely picture showing a longshot of the pigeon flying over the small town. It turns out that Sophie missed her bird friend too: "I knew you would come," she said. The conclusion is quiet but shows their newly plausible friendship. "Will you come back tomorrow?" "I will," promises the bird, thus subtlely reminding kids that a conquered fear (all in good time, of course, no need to rush) can bring new, happy possibilities. It also shows parents that all trips back and forth between their young kids' houses is worth it. I would have like a little more personality and creativity in the book, but the toddler crowd will enjoy its reassuring development and some truly captivating pictures. Published by Greenwillow.

cute

Caruso is a bird that is afraid to fly. One night wind blows him from his nest. He lands at a dog named Sophie's house. This picture book tells the story of how the animals become friends and of how Sophie teaches Caruso to believe in him self! The water color pictures are beautiful and add a soft warm feeling to the book. I believe it's message is timeless and we will enjoy reading it to our children for years to come.

Doing something because you want to is easier than doing it because you have to

On the first page of "Sophie's Window" we do not meet Sophie, but rather Caruso, a young bird who is afraid to fly. This is a pretty big problem when you are a bird. His parents try to be reassuring, but Caruso keeps thinking about getting lost in a cloud or worries that he will get tired and fall (SPLAT!). That night while the wind is whipping around the rooftops of the city in which Caruso and his family live, the young bird hops down from his shed and a giant gust of wind picks him up, carries him away, and deposits him someplace new. This would be a bad thing. This is where the title of the book comes into play, because the next morning Caruso discovers a friendly looking dog named Sophie. Caruso wants to go home and he can see the yellow building with a small shed on its top, which is where he lives. Sophie does not see the problem until the little bird admits that he cannot fly, and Caruso does not think that getting a little push from Sophie would solve the dilemma (yes, Sophie uses the big word "dilemma," which is another reason to like this 2005 book). Of course, Sophie and Caruso are going to solve the dilemma, because "Sophie's Window" would not be a fun book for children to read if Caruso never got home again and never learned how to fly. But Holly Keller gets me to round up on this one because Sophie does not teach Caruso how to fly, which is what you probably think is the obvious solution to the book's key dilemma. Consequently, Keller teaches her young readers a simple lesson, but do not expect it to be spelled out like the title of this review in the text of the book (That is because the publishers put it at the bottom of the inside flap of the front cover and not at the end of the story). The illustrations in this book were done with watercolors and black lines, but I want to say that I really like the blue that Keller uses a couple of times to represent the sky. Keller is the creator of "Farfallina & Marcel," which was the winner of the 2003 Charlotte Zolotow Award and was a "Publishers Weekly" Best Book of the Year. She has also written and illustrated three books about a leopard named Horace, and several books about a feisty pig named Geraldine. So if you enjoy "Sophie's Window," there are certainly other books by Keller for you to check out as well.