Sophie's Tom
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Cover Story
Our cover illustration this month is by Shirley Hughes from The Big Alfie Out of Doors Storybook (see her article in this issue), published by Bodley Head (0 370 31516 2) at £8.99. We thank them for their help in reproducing an illustration from the book.
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Sophie's Tom
David Parkins
The weeks following Sophie's fifth birthday are very eventful. She starts school, pursues her ambition to be a lady farmer and contrives to adopt the stray cat who showed up at her unwelcoming house on Christmas Day. She also catches chicken pox and has her first taste of playground strife. These are mundane events, but they're related with such warmth, clarity and unforced humour that the book waraps the happy reader in a glow of quiet enjoyment. The doughty little heroine is a wonderful creation, and David Parkins' illustrations capture her, and the rest of her family, beautifully.