AUDIO BOOK
Sophie's Lucky

Author: Dick King-Smith
Read by: Bernard Cribbins
BBC Audio
RRP: £5.99
ISBN-13: 978 1 846 07128 7
ISBN-10: 1 84607 128 3
Available 05 March 2007


Sophie already has a rabbit and a cat and a dog, but what she'd really love is a pony. Good fortune comes Sophie's way when she's invited to spend her summer holiday in Scotland with Great Aunt Al...

Sophie's Lucky is the last in a series of six books in the Sophie series written by Dick King-Smith.

Sophie is nearly eight, and her collection of animals is growing all the time. What she would like most of all is a pony, but she can't imagine that she would ever be so lucky. Good fortune does come her way, however, when she and her family are invited to spend the summer holidays in Scotland. Sophie is overjoyed - after all, they are going to stay with her favourite relative. Great Aunt Al lives in a huge house surrounded by stables and fields, and Sophie has great fun exploring the farm next door and riding on the neighbours' pony - who is called Lucky.

I did have a slight problem with this tale. "Lucky" in the title refers to several things. Firstly Sophie is lucky to get to go to Scotland and roam around Great Aunt Al's farm. Then there is the fact that the horse that Sophie gets to look after is called Lucky, then there is the fact that Sophie is lucky enough to be left something substantial in a will. Maybe it was me, but quite a lot of attention seemed to be thrust onto the fact that Sophie and her family came into a lot of money - and that it was a very exciting time. Once the poor relative has passed on, everyone seems more concerned about the money. Is this really the sort of lesson that we should be teaching young, impressionable minds? Instead of earning things in life we are shown that if you wait for a rich relative to die you can live the life you've always wanted.

As with the previous releases in this series, this CD is read by Bernard Cribbins. As usual, Cribbins makes the story live as he provides all the voices and just the right amount of enthusiasm.

What is, on the whole, an enjoyable tale, is slightly spoiled by the questionable ending. Over this series of six books Sophie's only dream is to own a horse. No, thanks to the death in the family, her dream can be realised.

Amber Leigh

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