Sophie Someone

January 2, 2017
To help her unravel the mystery of her true identity, the narrator of this engrossing coming-of-age story (“Told the only way I dare tell it”) creates her own language, substituting words and changing font size and typeset for dramatic emphasis. While this initially demands focused attention, readers will soon get a handle on translating what she’s saying: “Lifting my phoenix to my eel, I crossed my flamingoes and waited,” notes Sophie, describing making a phone call. In sections labeled “Sophie Shell-Shocked,” “Sophie Nobody,” “Sophie Sherlock,” and “Sophie Pratt,” the 14-year-old recounts several key childhood memories, including an escape from England to Brussels, the destruction of passports, gaining a new noodle (name), and discovering that she lacks a birth certificate. Long (Being a Girl) creates intrigue as she plays with themes of language and communication, as when Sophie’s father denies he speaks English, Sophie makes surprising discoveries on Faxbucket (Facebook), and her mother channels her frustrations by blaring rap music. Readers who embrace Sophie’s eccentric narrative will be rewarded with revelations about the cost of deceit and the healing power of honesty. Ages 12–up.

February 1, 2017

Gr 6 Up-Sophie, who has grown up in Brussels, Belgium, has vague memories of leaving England as a small child with her mother. As she grows older, it becomes more apparent that her parents haven't been exactly truthful about their past. When she is 14, Sophie makes an alarming discovery, and her world is thrown out of orbit; she must piece together her identity from what she knows and doesn't know about herself and her family. Can she gather enough information to find out who she really is? Long presents a delightfully unique voice in this dazzling, entertaining novel that deals with identity, family, and friendship. Some teens will be challenged by a cryptic narrative style filled with wordplay. Long also creatively manipulates text, playing with font size, spacing, and form in unusual and engaging ways. The plot moves quickly, though, and once they get used to Sophie's "code speak," even reluctant readers will find it satisfying. Teens will relate to Sophie's challenges as she struggles to learn who she really is.

Copyright 2017 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from January 1, 2017
Sophie Nieuwenleven has lived in Belgium for most of her life; now 14, she's beginning to wonder about the odd things her parents say when they're fighting, not to mention certain hazy and mysterious childhood memories that don't add up. Her mother is a rap-loving recluse and her father a garage mechanic who claims a Belgian ancestry. Yet despite giving Sophie's younger brother the uber-Belgian name Hercule Tintin, both parents seem thoroughly English. Still, Brussels is such a cosmopolitan city that a white, sort-of English, sort-of Belgian girl with a black best friend from the Democratic Republic of the Congo flies under the radar at her international school. Poking around online one day, Sophie uncovers a clue that begins the unraveling of all the lies she's been told. Or, as Sophie puts it in her cryptic yet strangely comprehensible way, "You probably think I lost my helix....[C]hasing off to a foreign country to meet a pigeon I've just met on the Introvert isn't anything I'd normally do. But this wasn't a normal situation." Sophie and her circle of family and friends are sympathetic and appealing in all their flawed humanity. Her peculiar way of speech soon reads as clearly as plain English and perfectly mirrors her internal turmoil as she navigates her parents' shift from just mambo and don to people with a past she never imagined--which, to some extent, is a transformation every young person will understand. A creative and memorable story about secrets, lies, and moving on. (Fiction. 11 & up)

COPYRIGHT(2017) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Starred review from February 1, 2017
Grades 6-9 *Starred Review* Sometimes it can be incredibly difficult to put something into words, particularly if the experience is traumatic. For 14-year-old Sophie, a recent discovery about her past sets her world reeling, and in an effort to make sense of itand of who she isshe puts her pen to paper to tell her story in her own language. English-born Sophie and her parents moved to Brussels when she was five, which, according to her father, is where his family is from. But as the years pass, clues and memories surface that make Sophie begin to doubt her parents' story. When a school letter arrives asking for copies of Sophie's passport and birth certificate, her parents can't satisfactorily explain why they don't have them. Convinced that her parents are keeping a secret, Sophie starts digging for the truth, growing increasingly angry and confused the more she finds out. Long weaves an inventively written and entrancing story filled with good intentions, poor decisions, meaningful friendships, and complicated but loving family relationships. It takes something of a leap of faith on the reader's part, as Sophie's peculiar writing style seems somewhat nonsensical at first glance; however, those who persevere will quickly understand her true meanings. The result is an original narrative that zigs and zags in inspired ways, with a sympathetic heroine leading the way.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)

January 1, 2018
Idiosyncratic Sophie has murky memories of moving from England to Belgium, but only after turning fourteen does she question her parents' suspicious version of her early childhood. Their secret is ultimately less interesting than Sophie's fervent journey to uncover it, which she narrates using clever but unexplained word substitutions (e.g., "helix" for head, "mambo" for mom); readers will either find the device delightful or aggravating.

(Copyright 2018 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)