Winter's No Time to Sleep!

by Poppy Green

  Pippa’s eyes lit up. “That sounds so fun!” she said. “Can we play? Now?”

  The others agreed. One by one, they stood up. They shook off the snow. Suddenly Owen laughed. He pointed at the snow they had been lying in.

  Side by side, there were four very different imprints. It was easy to see who had made each one!

  Starting their game, the friends made their way into the woods. There were lots of good places to hide.

  Owen was “it.” He covered his eyes and counted. Sophie, Hattie, and Pippa ran off to hide.

  Slip-Sliding Away

  The friends took turns being “it.” When it was Sophie’s turn, she found Owen first. She found Pippa next. But as hard as she tried she could not find Hattie—not even with Owen’s and Pippa’s help!

  Finally, Sophie called, “Come out, come out, wherever you are!”

  Hattie peeked out from the branches of a fir tree. “Here I am!”

  “Wow!” said Sophie. “Good hiding, Hattie. We’ve been looking for you forever!”

  Hattie smiled proudly. She had made tracks leading to a hollow log. From there, she’d hopped straight up into the tree. The fir needles had kept her hidden as she crouched on the branch.

  “What should we do next?” Owen asked. They had played many rounds of snow hide-and-seek. “Ice skating?”

  “Yeah!” cried Sophie, remembering how frozen Forget-Me-Not Lake was.

  “Um, ice skating?” said Pippa uncertainly.

  Hattie patted her on the back. “Don’t worry! You’ll love it!”

  The friends tromped through the woods. Soon they were standing on the bank of the lake. Pippa cautiously put her foot onto the ice. “Cool!” she exclaimed. “I’ve never seen it like this!”

  Sophie, Owen, and Hattie found some icicles dangling from a craggy rock. Sophie snapped two of them off.

  “These will be your skates!” Sophie told Pippa. “Watch!”

  Gently, Sophie scraped the icicle along the rock. She did it again and again, shaving the icicle down. Soon it had a sharp edge on one side.

  Sophie, Hattie, and Owen quickly made their own skates too. Then they found some bendy pine twigs. They used them to tie the icicles to their feet. They helped Pippa put hers on.

  Then all four friends teetered onto the ice.

  “Whoa!” Pippa cried, slipping a little. She grabbed onto Sophie for balance. Sophie skated backward, holding Pippa’s hands. At first, Pippa was walking on the ice. But Sophie encouraged her to glide. “Watch Hattie. See how she pushes off with one foot and glides?”

  Pippa watched Hattie. She tried it herself. The first few times, she almost fell down. But she kept trying. Each time, she glided a little farther.

  Then Pippa let go of Sophie’s hands. She pushed off once, twice. She glided, finding her balance. Then she did it all over again.

  Pippa was skating!

  “Way to go, Pippa!” Sophie called out after her. “You’ve got it!”

  Hattie and Owen skated up to Pippa. They clapped and cheered.

  Sophie did a few figure eights. She practiced her jumps and spins. Then she took a rest. An icy wind blew across the lake. Sophie shivered. She reached up to tighten her scarf around her neck.

  But her scarf wasn’t there.

  Sophie looked down. Had it just fallen off? She looked all around her on the ice. No scarf.

  She skated over to the rock where they’d made the skates. No scarf.

  Sophie looked along the bank of the lake. She couldn’t find it anywhere.

  Oh no! thought Sophie. My special scarf from Mom is lost

  The Scarf Search

  Hattie came over to Sophie. “What’s the matter?” she asked.

  Sophie explained that she’d lost her scarf. “My mom knit it for me,” she said. Tears welled up in her eyes. “She gave it to me this morning.”

  “Don’t worry,” said Owen. “We’ll help you find it!”

  But Sophie was still worried. “I’ve looked around. It’s not here,” she told her friends.

  Hattie gave Sophie a squeeze. “Maybe you dropped it on the way,” she said. “It’s okay. We’ll retrace our steps. We’ll look in all the places we’ve been today.”

  Pippa nodded. “It’s a purple scarf, right? I remember it! You were wearing it when I met you. Definitely.”

  Hattie clapped. “That’s a clue! So Sophie lost the scarf sometime after we met Pippa. And before we got to the lake.”

  Sophie wiped her eyes and tried to smile.

  They all took off their skates. Then they headed back toward Hickory Hill. The snow came in handy. They could follow their tracks to go back exactly the way they’d come.

  They went slowly. They looked up, down, and all around. But they didn’t find the scarf.

  Soon they came to a clearing. “This is where we played snow hide-and-seek,” Owen pointed out.

  Sophie checked all the places she had hidden. The others looked around on the ground. Hattie gently kicked at the snow, in case the scarf had gotten covered. But there was no scarf.

  They continued on and came out of the woods. There in front of them were the imprints they’d made by lying in the snow.

  “I remember lying here eating snow,” Sophie said. “But I can’t remember if I had my scarf!”

  They looked all around but found nothing.

  Sophie frowned. “We’re almost back at Pippa’s house,” she said. “We’re running out of places to look.”

  But Hattie pointed over Sophie’s shoulder. “Don’t forget our snowball fight!” she said. “There’s our snow wall. Or what’s left of it.”

  Full of fresh hope, Sophie scurried over. She did remember something about the last time she saw her scarf . . . and a snowball?

  Did I drop it during the snowball fight? she thought. She dug around the wrecked wall.

  There was nothing there but snow.

  So the friends climbed up Hickory Hill, looking all around. Sophie’s shoulders slumped. Sledding was the first thing they’d done with Pippa. If my scarf isn’t here on the hill . . . then we won’t find it, after all.

  Up ahead, Pippa reached the crest of the hill. She stopped, pointing at something in front of her. But it was out of Sophie’s line of sight.

  “Look!” Pippa shouted. “Sophie, look!”

  Rock-a-Bye, Pippa

  Sophie ran up over the crest of the hill. There, set back from the slope, stood the snow mouse. And around its neck was a beautiful purple scarf!

  “My scarf!” Sophie cried. “Of course! I was adding the finishing touches. I wanted to see how my scarf looked on the snow mouse. But then Owen hit me with a snowball! And I got swept up in our snowball fight!”

  Owen blushed. “Sorry,” he said.

  Sophie smiled. “No, it’s not your fault.” She took the scarf and wrapped it around her neck. It was a little icy from being left on the hilltop. But Sophie didn’t care. “We found it!” she cheered.

  Her friends cheered with her.

  Then Owen shivered. “I think it’s time for me to go home,” he said.

  Hattie nodded. “Me too. I could use a hot chocolate.”

  That sounded good to Sophie. Her toes were starting to get chilly. So she and Hattie and Owen walked Pippa home. They stood outside the doorway of the nest.

  “Bye, Pippa!” said Owen.

  Hattie smiled. “I’m really glad we met you!”

  Sophie waved good-bye. “Are you going to go back to sleep now?” she asked.

  Pippa stared back at them with big eyes.

  Big, wide-open, wide-awake eyes.

  “I should go back to sleep,” Pippa replied. “But I don’t feel so sleepy. . . .”

  “Oh,” said Sophie. She looked at Hattie and Owen. “Well, maybe we could stay a while longer?”

  Hattie and Owen understood. “We need to help Pippa fall asleep again!” Hattie said.

  Pippa smiled. “Would you?” she said. “Thank you!”

  Sophie thought for a sec
ond. “How about a lullaby?” she suggested.

  Pippa nodded. She snuggled down and closed her eyes. Sophie began to sing. It was a lullaby that her dad loved about a sleepy squirrel.

  She sang the whole song twice. Pippa’s eyes were still closed. “Did it work?” Sophie whispered to Hattie.

  Pippa’s eyes popped open. “Nope,” she said.

  Hattie yawned. “It made me sleepy,” she said.

  Seeing Hattie yawn made Owen yawn. Then Sophie yawned too. The only one not yawning was Pippa.

  Owen spoke up. “My mom rocked me to sleep when I was little,” he said.

  “Too bad we don’t have a rocking chair,” Hattie pointed out.

  They thought it over. “I have an idea!” Pippa said suddenly. “Wait here.” She tiptoed inside the nest. When she came out, she had a blanket. “We could make a hammock!”

  “Yes!” cried Sophie. She tied one end of the blanket to a branch. Hattie tied the other end to another branch.

  Pippa climbed in and closed her eyes. Sophie, Hattie, and Owen rocked the hammock gently. Side to side. Side to side . . .

  They rocked her for a long while. But then Pippa opened one eye. “Sorry,” she said. “It’s not working.”

  Pippa climbed out of the hammock. She plopped down on the ground. “It’s no use,” she said. “You guys should go home. I’m sure I’ll get sleepy . . . sometime.”

  Sophie frowned. They couldn’t just leave Pippa. But what could they do? How could they help her fall asleep?

  Good Night, Sleep Tight

  Sophie sat down next to Pippa. Hattie and Owen did too. They were out of ideas. So they decided to just keep Pippa company for a bit.

  “It was a good snow day,” said Hattie. “Wasn’t it?”

  Pippa nodded. “I never knew winter could be so much fun!”

  They took turns talking about which activity they liked best. “Sledding was my favorite,” said Owen. “Our sled track was really fast!”

  Hattie went next. “My favorite part was snow hide-and-seek.” She was really proud of her hiding place. “But I also loved the imprints we made in the snow!”

  Sophie thought it over. “It is hard to pick just one thing I liked best. Let’s see. . . .” She listed everything they had done. She noted what was fun about each. She gave each a score from one to ten. When she was done, all the scores were the same: ten. “Nope,” Sophie said. “I can’t pick. How about you, Pippa?”

  “Huh?” Pippa mumbled. Her eyelids looked heavy. Then she yawned a huge yawn.

  “Oh!” said Hattie, jumping up. “I think someone is ready for bed now.”

  Sophie and Owen jumped up too. They helped Pippa to her feet. She swayed sleepily, then shuffled into the nest.

  “See you in the springtime,” Sophie whispered as Pippa disappeared.

  They waited outside for a minute, listening. But there wasn’t a sound from inside the nest. Owen shrugged. “That’s a good sign,” he said.

  Then there was one very loud snore.

  Sophie giggled. “That’s an even better sign!”

  Sophie got home just as her dad was pouring the hot cocoa. Before dinner, she went up to her room. She got out her brushes and paints. She mixed some white with a touch of blue. Then Sophie painted a snowy scene at Hickory Hill.

  Later, at bedtime, she snuggled into her warm, cozy bed. Time for my long winter’s sleep, Sophie thought.

  But not as long as Pippa’s! Tomorrow’s another snow day!

  Here’s a peek at the next Adventures of Sophie Mouse book!

  Mrs. Wise closed the book she had just read out loud to the class. Sophie sighed. Wow! What a story! she thought.

  A groundhog had found a hidden stairway in a tree. He’d climbed it all the way to the top branch. But the stairway kept going. So the groundhog did too—into the clouds and over a rainbow! He’d found a magical world on the other side.

  Sophie loved the story and the way it was told. It didn’t feel like a fairy tale. It was written as if it had really happened!

  “All right class,” said Mrs. Wise. “Who can tell me what a legend is?”

  Lydie, Hattie Frog’s big sister, raised her hand.

  “It’s a story that animals believe in,” Lydie said. “But there’s no proof that it really happened.”

  Poppy Green can talk to animals! Unfortunately, they never talk back to her. So she started writing in order to imagine what they might say and do when humans aren’t watching. Poppy lives on the edge of the woods in Connecticut, where her backyard is often a playground for all kinds of wildlife: birds, rabbits, squirrels, voles, skunks, deer, and the occasional wild turkey.

  Jennifer A. Bell is an illustrator whose work can be found on greeting cards, in magazines, and in more than a dozen children’s books. She lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota, with her husband, son, and cranky cat.

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  Simon & Schuster • New York

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  This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

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  An imprint of Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing Division • 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, New York 10020 www.SimonandSchuster.com • First Little Simon hardcover edition December 2015 • Copyright © 2015 by Simon & Schuster, Inc. All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. LITTLE SIMON is a registered trademark of Simon & Schuster, Inc., and associated colophon is a trademark of Simon & Schuster, Inc. For information about special discounts for bulk purchases, please contact Simon & Schuster Special Sales at 1-866-506-1949 or business@simonandschuster.com. The Simon & Schuster Speakers Bureau can bring authors to your live event. For more information or to book an event contact the Simon & Schuster Speakers Bureau at 1-866-248-3049 or visit our website at www.simonspeakers.com. Designed by Laura Roode. The text of this book was set in Usherwood.

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Green, Poppy. Winter’s no time to sleep! / by Poppy Green ; illustrated by Jennifer A. Bell. — First Little Simon paperback edition. pages cm. — (The adventures of Sophie Mouse ; 6) Summary: While Sophie Mouse and her forest friends are playing in the snow one day, they accidentally wake a hibernating hedgehog named Pippa, who is a little grumpy at first, but Sophie, Hattie, and Owen show her all the fun things to do in wintertime. [1. Mice—Fiction. 2. Forest animals—Fiction. 3. Winter—Fiction.] I. Bell, Jennifer (Jennifer A.), 1977- illustrator. II. Title. III. Title: Winter’s no time to sleep! PZ7.G82616Wi 2015 [Fic]—dc23 2015006941

  ISBN 978-1-4814-4200-8 (hc)

  ISBN 978-1-4814-4199-5 (pbk)

  ISBN 978-1-4814-4201-5 (eBook)