by Lara Bergen
A bunny! Sophie perked up. How fun would that be?
But then Ms. Moffly’s eyes were on her again. Her stomach bees started buzzing.
“Sophie,” said Ms. Moffly. “I think you know that taking a snake is not a minor infraction.”
Sophie nodded. Yes. She did know that. Whatever that meant.
“And there will be consequences,” Ms. Moffly went on.
Consequences. Ugh! Sophie knew that word, unfortunately.
“Tomorrow you will stay in at recess and do extra math,” Ms. Moffly said.
The bees in Sophie’s stomach settled down a bit. She hated to miss recess. But math? She kind of liked that.
Ms. Moffly smiled and folded her hands.
“Still, I want to commend you for your honesty, Sophie. I’m proud of you for that,” Ms. Moffly said. “It is important to tell the truth. Always.”
Suddenly, all the bees in Sophie’s stomach flew away. And what they left felt like warm honey. It spread to the tips of her toes and her hands.
Sophie was honest — about taking the snake, anyway — and it felt good. Almost as good as being a hero!
“Now, I think you should return the snake to Mr. Bloom,” Ms. Moffly said. “I want you to tell him what happened, and that it will never happen again.”
“No problem.” Sophie nodded. Then she crossed her heart. “I will tell the truth. The whole truth. And nothing but the truth,” she said.
“Very good,” Ms. Moffly said with a smile.
Then Sophie remembered Hayley’s jacket. She had hung it on her hook. She ran over and grabbed it. She could take it to Hayley and tell the truth about that, too!
She put the jacket over one arm and walked up to Toby.
“I’ll take Rumplesnakeskin now,” she said, holding out her arms.
“Here you go,” he said. He handed the snake over and stuck out his tongue.
Sophie stuck her tongue out, too. Very quickly. Like Rumplesnakeskin.
“Oh, and for the record, I did not leave him on the chair. I put him in a drawer and he crawled out,” she said.
Sophie smiled at Rumplesnakeskin. Humph! Toby thought he was a hero. Anyone could hold a snake. But could anyone tell the truth? All the time? About everything? That was the question!
And Sophie knew the answer—she could. And she would.
She would be Sophie the Honest from now on!
She smiled down at the sticky H on her shirt. She didn’t even have to change her shirt to fit her new name!
(But yeah, she should probably wash it.)
Preview
So maybe SOPHIE the HERO
isn’t the perfect name.
But SOPHIE isn’t giving up yet!
Take a peek at Sophie’s next adventure….
They felt the bus lurch forward. A round of “On Top of Spaghetti” started up. But Sophie and Kate did not sing. Sophie was tired of that song, for one thing. Plus, she had some more Sophie the Honest stuff to tell Kate.
“So guess what. I told my mom and dad about taking the fifth-grade’s snake yesterday. And that was before my big sister, Hayley, could say anything,” Sophie said.
Kate looked a little surprised. And a lot impressed.
“Did you get in big trouble?” Kate asked Sophie.
Sophie grinned and shook her head.
“No! That’s the best part,” she said. “My mom and dad were so proud of me for being honest. They didn’t punish me or anything!”
And that was not all Sophie had told her parents the night before. She also told them about the squash stuck to the bottom of the dinner table. (By her. Every time they had squash for dinner.)
“You know, it honestly feels good not to have secrets!” Sophie told Kate.
“Wow!” Kate said. “And how about your basement? Did you tell them why it stinks? That we were making potions, and that it wasn’t your little brother?”
“Oh … that,” Sophie said. She had forgotten about that. Almost. “I haven’t told them about that yet,” she said.
“Well, how about your mom’s stockings? The ones we played fashion show with? Did you tell her Tiptoe didn’t rip them? Did you tell her we did?” Kate asked.
“Er … no,” Sophie said. And she did not really want to. Tiptoe was her kitten. She could not really get in trouble. But Sophie sure could.
Still …
“I’ll tell them,” she told Kate. “I will! I promise!”
From now on, Sophie would be completely, totally honest. After all, that was who she was now!
Also Available
Finding the right name isn’t easy!
See what else Sophie tries out….
1: SOPHIE the AWESOME
2: SOPHIE the HERO
3: SOPHIE the CHATTERBOX
4: SOPHIE the ZILLIONAIRE
5: SOPHIE the SNOOP
About the Author
Just like Sophie, Lara Bergen would love to find a name that describes her perfectly … but for now she’ll settle with being the author of this great series and many other books for children — and, before that, the proud editor of many more. She lives in the Big Apple, New York City, with the best husband and two children in the world.
Copyright
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission of the publisher. For information regarding permission, write to Scholastic Inc., Attention: Permissions Department, 557 Broadway, New York, NY 10012.
Text copyright © 2010 by Lara Bergen.
Illustrations copyright © 2010 by Scholastic Inc.
Cover art by Laura Tallardy
Cover design by Tim Hall
All rights reserved. Published by Scholastic Inc. SCHOLASTIC and associated logos are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Scholastic Inc.
First printing, July 2010
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eISBN 978-0-545-36109-5