Sophie's Lucky (by Dick King-Smith)

(Amazon UK link)

I did enjoy Dick King Smith's stories when my sons were little, and am enjoying them all over again with some young friends. I was able to buy some of them in a charity shop a year ago, and have picked up others inexpensively online.

I did actually read 'Sophie's Lucky' to myself last Summer when I had bought it, and have just finished reading it out loud to a six-year-old friend. This volume is the last of the six children's books about the small but determined Sophie who wants to be a lady farmer when she grows up.

In this story, Sophie and her family go to stay with Sophie's Great-great Aunt Al in the Highlands. Seven-year-old Sophie, who has recently learned to ride, falls in love with a shaggy pony called Lucky. They have a wonderful holiday, and Sophie is all the more determined that she wants to live on a farm when she is older.

Then, a few weeks after returning home, they have some bad news. It was the kind of thing which I found a little surprising in a children's book - but it is sensitively handled, and leads to an unexpected and exciting surprise which gives a most satisfying conclusion to this series.

Although the Sophie books could be tackled by any reasonably confident reader of about six and above, there is quite a bit of satire and other humour that is all the better for being read aloud, and which might not be noticed or understood by a young child. The language is not dumbed down in any way, yet it's written in a fairly simple style that children seem to enjoy. I certainly did!

Best read as the last in the series, but it does also stand alone.

Note that it's sometimes possible to purchase a combined 'further adventures' of Sophie, which includes not just this book, but the fourth and fifth in the series too.

Review copyright Sue's Book Reviews, 30th December 2011