Happy Fall! This is an awesome book. A sequel to this came out this year, which looks fun, so I decided I should read this one before reading the sequel. I LOVE IT. Friendship, persistence, loyalty, and patience.
How can you not love a little girl who loves her squash this much?
Sophie met her squash at the farmer's market.
It was just the right size for loving.
When it was time to make supper, Sophie's mother looked at the squash. She looked at Sophie.
"I call her Bernice," Sophie said.
"I'll call for a pizza," said her mother.
Bernice was a companionable squash.
Somersaults
Her parents worried. They tried interesting her in other toys. No can do. Sophie wanted Bernice and Bernice only.
Occasionally her mother would make squash-icide comments.
"Sweet pea," Sophie's mother said one morning as they made blueberry waffles, "Bernice is a squash, not a friend. If we don't eat her soon, she'll get mushy and gross. Let's bake her with marshmallows. Won't that taste yummy?"
Sophie covered Bernice's ears.
But eventually, Bernice became spotted. However, Sophie was a loyal friend who wouldn't turn her back on Bernice just because of her physical appearance.
She went to the farmer's market again to ask a farmer how to keep squash fresh and healthy.
"It's simple, really," he said. "Fresh air. Good clean dirt. A little love."
Sophie could provide those things. So she tucked Bernice into some nice clean dirt to keep her fresh.
The next morning it was snowing.
"I'm sure she is warm and cozy under her snow blanket," her mother said.
To distract Sophie, her parents bought her a fish.
But she still missed Bernice.
One spring day, after the snow had melted, Sophie found a little shoot where Bernice was.
Joy!
They ate lunch together with the goldfish and cat every day.
One day, she found that Bernice had two growing babies!
And in the fall, they were just the right size to love again.
