Fun With Sophie is a collection of humorous stories about Sophie, a ballerina in Argentina, and is written in poetic rhyming style. Sophie and her dog, Weltzer, and her potbellied pig, Taffy, have daily encounters with other characters such as Uncle Sneezel and Aunt Minibelle and their animals, Hibiscus, the wart hog, and Granville, the goat. Then there is Cousin Saul and the Gazooms, Madame Turlock, Sophie=s ballerina teacher, and Mr. Fong. Fun with Sophie is a delightful presentation of Sophie, her life, and the unusual characters and animals that are described. The book will transform the reader into a realm of imagination, fantasy, and humor and should appeal to people of all ages. Louise Lefler Fry

Leaving his position in the king's army, Michael settled down with his wife in a small farmhouse in the woods, raising two children, and assuming his life of violence was behind him. When he wasn't helping his wife with the garden or doing chores, he would be in the woods with his 16-year-old son, Benny, teaching him everything he knew about woodcraft and hunting. Sophie, Benny's 12-year-old sister, would often tag along, watching from the shadows. A very small and quiet girl, Sophie always seemed happy to amuse herself. So often overlooked by her family, never noticing just how special she was—that was about to change. One day, when the two kids are out playing in the woods, Sophie inexplicably panics and runs for home. Confused, Benny follows and the two arrive just in time to witness a band of mercenaries attacking their farm, looting their possessions and taking their parents captive. There is no one they can call on for help―no one who can save their parents from whatever horrible fate awaits them. And so, that responsibility falls squarely on their own small shoulders ... assuming they can avoid capture themselves.

Sophie Banks has worked hard for what she has: top of her senior class in high school, gainfully employed, and hopelessly in love with the handsome Eric Lawrence. With graduation a mere three months away, Sophie's life is on track until a family brawl turns her world upside-down. Between being exposed as having a less-than-ideal home life and faced with a principal who is fed up with her antics, Sophie is forced to live with a guardian, the strictest teacher from her parochial school, Ms. Brooke Jennings. Balancing her new life while hiding her old, Sophie is overwhelmed. On one lonesome drive home she's involved in a life-changing car accident. Brooke's loyalty through it all has Sophie seeing her guardian in a whole new light-as the mother she desperately needs. If only Sophie can get the rest of her family to feel the same. When Brooke moves in, love and loyalty will be tested, but will Sophie get the happy ending she's fought for?

Sophie Elliott had everything to live for, until her ex boyfriend decided otherwise. The gripping mother's tale of a murder that shocked New Zealand. Sophie Elliott had good looks, intelligence, friends, a loving family, a degree under her belt and a new job at the Treasury in Wellington. And then, the day before she left Dunedin to take up that job, she was brutally stabbed to death in her own home by her former boyfriend, Clayton Weatherston. He was much older and one of her lecturers at the university. When the public came to take his measure at his high-profile trial in 2010, his narcissistic, manipulative personality stunned the nation. Sophie's mother Lesley has weathered the horror of her daughter's death, and the gruelling process of the trial, to set up a foundation to help young women identify when they might be in a relationship that puts them in harm's way — as Sophie was, unbeknownst to her and her family — and how to seek help. This book is Lesley's tribute to a daughter she adored, her harrowing account of a tragedy no family should ever have to endure, and her inspiring decision to make sure that Sophie's legacy endures. It's also her challenge to the justice system on behalf of victims.

Is this the end of childhood? When a serious illness strikes one of the Flakes, the others can't daydream their way out of the shocking news. Instead they rally 'round and find that friends—and faith—show the way to a new adventure called growing up.

2009 Word Guild Award — Winner, Young Adult Fiction In the aftermath of the 1838 rebellion in Lower Canada, Sophie Mallory’s father is wrongfully convicted of treason and sentenced to life imprisonment in Australia. But there is no question about what Sophie should do: with her guardian, Lady Theodosia Thornleigh, and Luc Moriset, she sets sail for Sydney. She finds Australia an outside-down country. The water goes down the drain the opposite way, half the population are (or have been) convicts. In one notorious incident, her father, Benjamin, and the Canadian convicts arrest police. Lady Theo even finds herself renting a house from her own servants. Shortly after they settle in Sydney, Sophie and Luc make friends with the Hendricks twins. Luc quickly chums with Billy, but Sophie astonishes everyone. She loathes, despises, and abominates Polly. Luc despairs of her, and Lady Theo compounds the problem by sending Sophie to Polly’s boarding school. When the school closes temporarily, due to an outbreak of scarlet fever, the girls rashly decide to make their own way to Polly’s house in the country. Not surprisingly, they’re kidnapped by bush rangers. During their escape, Polly’s feet become dangerously infected when she jumps onto an oyster bed. Trying to avoid recapture, Sophie must make her way across Port Stephens in a one-oared rowboat to save Polly. When her father and Luc’s brother are pardoned, Sophie faces the biggest decision of her life to that point – whether or not her place of exile will be her home.

When future film director Sophie LaCroix visits Williamsburg, Virginia, her imagination sends her straight into the eighteenth century. An unlikely heroine, Sophie’s forced to use her new-found war tactics to foil a heinous plot and save a friend from impending humiliation by the popular girls.