Sophie Simon Solves Them All by Lisa Graff

• Title: Sophie Simon Solves Them All
• Author: Lisa Graff
• Publishing: Square Fish. September 18, 2012. 
• Synopsis: This book is a short chapter book intended for grades third through fifth. The story follows the story of Sophie Simon, who is a very smart student. In her spare time Sophie loves to teach herself calculus. She is also very good at dealing with her parents and has even performed heart surgery on a worm. Although Sophie Simon seems to be an overall smart girl, she struggles with realizing the value of friendship.  Her parents and teachers worry about her issue making friends, but Sophie just doesn't see the point. However, this changes in the story when Sophie really wants a 100-dollar calculator and is faced with the task of using her smarts to interact with some of her peers with some issues at home. In helping her fellow classmates, Sophie realizes that it's not so bad to have friends and to be a friend in return. 
• The illustrations in this book are unique in that they literally show what is Sophie as the person she is, in that the illustrator depicts above her head the inner workings of her mind as she tries to solve all of her classmates problems. 
• I found Sophie Simon Solves Them All to be an excellent book. I really loved the message on the importance of friendship. This book is geared towards children in the middle of elementary school and blossoming friendships are becoming more and more important which makes this a great and relatable book for young children. 
• I would definitely use this as a novel study for a 3rd grade class because the main character Sophie is also in 3rd grade. I would include mini lessons about the importance of friendship and what it means to be a good friend. I would also incorporate math lesson as mini lesson because they tie in with Sophie Simon's love of math. While reading this book, I cam up with the idea for a bulletin board and activity. I would call the bulletin board called the "Friendship Equation" I would then have cut out little calculators for each of my students. I would instruct them to write on their calculator what it takes to be good friend and then I would paste them on the board. 
• In searching online, I found an excellent book trailer for Sophie Simon Solves Them All which can be found here: http://www.booktrailersforreaders.com/Sophie+Simon+Solves+Them+All+SchoolTube
• I also found the author's website that can be found here: http://www.lisagraff.com