Sophie Simon Solves Them All (9 page)

Anyway, I'm sure you can see where this is going. At the very end of seventh-grade (a year in which I was so awkward that I wore stretch purple leggings almost every day), I was called down for the money jump. And it was even more horrible than I'd imagined it would be, because I did not just jump badly, like I had all those times in gym class. Oh, no. I actually
fell over
, flat on my awkward butt. Mrs. Rouse had to help me to my feet in front of everyone, and then she led the entire school in loudly counting out my winnings.
“Three! Four!”
That was it. I earned four whole dollars. I was the least- successful money-jumper in the history of Big Bear Middle School.

What was your favorite thing about school?

I loved nearly everything about school (except for the aforementioned money-jumping fiasco). I was one of those rare kids who spent the whole summer looking forward to the first day of school, anxiously picking out an outfit and arranging my brand-new pencils
just so
in my binder. I loved school so much, in fact, that when I came down with strep throat the night before the first day of fourth grade, I was so desperate to show up to class that—even though I had spent the entire night weeping in pain—I convinced my mother to let me go, because
I absolutely could not miss the first day of school
. (To this day, I'm not sure how I pulled this off—I think my mom must have been too tired from the night of weeping to argue). Anyway, I got on the bus and had an amazing first day of school … and went to the hospital for my tonsillectomy that very afternoon.

What was your least favorite thing about school?

The only thing I truly hated about school was P.E. I was, and still am, a helpless athlete. Group sports were the worst for me, because when I wasn't getting hit in the head with a baseball (actually happened), I was busy scoring the winning point for the wrong team in basketball (actually happened). I spent a good deal of my growing-up years creating excuses about why I couldn't participate in P.E.

What were your hobbies as a kid? What are your hobbies now?

I loved to read as a kid, and write plays with my friends that we'd perform for our parents. I also used to participate in my town's Old Miner's Day festivities every summer, which celebrated the fact that Big Bear City, the small Southern California town where I grew up, was founded by gold miners. The most spectacular of the Old Miner's Day events was the Miss Clementine Pageant, in which participants would dress up in their most authentic 1800's Old West garb. The teen girl who was crowned Miss Clementine got to lead that year's Old Miner's Day parade, and host several events for local charity groups. Sadly, I never won that coveted role (although I still have my trophy for Most Authentic 1990—Junior Category).

These days, I spend much less time sporting bustles to win trophies, and more time doing boring things like baking and bike-riding. I still love to read.

Where do you write your books?

I write my books either in my home office in my pajamas, or at a coffee shop (typically not in my pajamas).

What sparked your imagination for
Sophie Simon Solves Them All
?

I've always loved writing about characters who were a little unusual, or who saw things from a different perspective than most other people. For a long time, I had this little-girl character in my head who was insanely smart, but who was completely incapable of communicating with other children. I wrote several short exercises when I was in graduate school with her as the star, until one of my professors told me I should stop writing about that character, “because you'll never make a book out of it.” (A lot of people told me Sophie was too unlikeable and surly to make a good protagonist.) I probably should have listened to him, but luckily for this book, I didn't!

What was your favorite book when you were a kid? Do you have a favorite book now?

I had so many favorites. My taste was all over the map. I really loved the Old Mother West Wind books and The Baby-Sitters Club series, as well as all the Beverly Cleary Ramona books and everything Roald Dahl ever wrote. The book that really made me fall in love with reading, though, was
Around the World in 80 Days
, which I discovered in the school library when I was in fourth grade. I made a fort in my room out of blankets, pillows, and cardboard boxes that existed for the sole purpose of reading that book—no one was allowed into the fort unless they were reading
Around the World in 80 Days
, and when the book was over, the fort went down. The story was so spectacular to me that it deserved its own little world.

I don't have a particular favorite book at the moment, but one of my favorite authors is P.G. Wodehouse. I never tire of reading a really funny book.

If you could travel in time, where would you go and what would you do?

I'd love to go to the 1950s and visit my parents when they were kids. They both grew up in Southern California, but they didn't meet until high school. It would be fun to see my grandparents as young parents, and to see how my own parents interacted with their brothers and sisters. (Plus, in photos, they always look stinking adorable!)

Do you have any strange or funny habits? Did you when you were a kid?

I have only ever liked eating chocolate pudding with a plastic spoon. Chocolate pudding tastes weird with a metal spoon. I keep a stash of plastic spoons on hand in the cutlery drawer, just in case some chocolate pudding should decide to turn up suddenly.

An Imprint of Macmillan

SOPHIE SIMON SOLVES THEM ALL.

Text copyright © 2010 by Lisa Graff.

Pictures copyright © 2010 by Jason Beene.

All rights reserved. For information, address Square Fish, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010.

Square Fish and the Square Fish logo are trademarks of Macmillan and are used by Farrar Straus Giroux under license from Macmillan.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Graff, Lisa (Lisa Colleen), 1981–

Sophie Simon solves them all / Lisa Graff; pictures by Jason Beene.

   p. cm.

Summary: Sophie Simon, a third-grade genius, wants a graphing calculator so she can continue to study calculus while she rides the bus to school, but her parents are more concerned that she does not have any friends.

ISBN: 978-1-250-02898-3

[1. Genius—Fiction. 2. Friendship—Fiction. 3. Schools—Fiction.] I. Beene, Jason, ill. II. Title.

PZ7.G751577So 2010

[Fic]—dc22

2009041454

Originally published in the United States by Farrar Straus Giroux

First Square Fish Edition: September 2012

Square Fish logo designed by Filomena Tuosto

mackids.com

eISBN 9781429951814

First eBook edition: April 2013