Lisa Graff and Sophie Simon stop by today on their blog tour

We are lucky to have children's book author Lisa Graff with us today. She brought along the main character from her fun new Middle Grade novel, Sophie Simon Solves Them All. Welcome Ms. Graff and Sophie! 

As many know Lisa Graff is the author of three other books: The Life and Crimes of Bernetta Wallflower (2008); The Thing About Georgie (2008 and named to nine state reading lists) and one of Caity's favorite books this year, Umbrella Summer (2009 and named to six state reading lists). 

Book summary: For a third-grader, Sophie Simon is one smart cookie. She enjoys teaching herself advanced calculus and has performed successful heart surgery on an earthworm. She's also very clever when it comes to dealing with her clueless parents. But Sophie is no genius when it comes to calculating the high value of friendship--until, that is, she has to use her incredible IQ to help out some classmates with their own parental troubles.

Welcome ladies! Instead of asking Ms. Graff the questions, Caitlin decided to ask Sophie.

Dear Sophie Simon,

Let's say that you get your first cell phone and your super excited to call, and text your friends! The second you step in the car, your new phone starts ringing. "Who could that be" you think, because you just got it a minute ago. Anyway, you pick it up. Before you can even say hello, a woman starts saying a pizza order. Your astonished, and hang up thinking it was just one wrong number. But then it happens again, and again. And 24-seven, your getting calls asking for a extra cheesy pizza! So, Sophie Simon- what would you do if you had this problem. Thank you for letting me ask Sophie a question, and I hope you enjoy answering it!

And here is Sophie's response:

Dear Caity,

This is a very puzzling problem you've presented! Fortunately for me I don't have such problems, because I don't call my friends on the phone (I prefer to communicate with them remotely using only morse code. It is more difficult for them to understand, but I find it mentally stimulating.).

However, if such a problem did arise, I would first attempt to figure out if the call was a prank, using a high-tech voice-recognition machine that scans the voice of the caller and compares it to thousands of matches (I made such a device in my basement when I was four. It is useful for figuring out who's pretending to be Santa Claus at the local mall.).

If I still couldn't get to the bottom of things this way, I would then move on to Plan B: Forming my own start-up pizza business. I'd make all the pizzas myself, and use only the freshest ingredients--I'd even make my own flour. (I've always wanted a good excuse to set up a flour mill in my backyard, and with so many hungry customers calling up for good pizza, my parents wouldn't be able to argue.) Then I'd deliver the pizzas all over town on my bike (the homemade rocket-booster I crafted out of an old meat freezer would help me get there with extra speed). If business got REALLY good, I might let my new friends Daisy, Julia, and Owen get in on the action, too. We'd be rolling in tips!

And what would I use the money for? Why, a new set of encyclopedias, of course! Oh, and possibly a new pizza cookbook...

Thanks for the excellent question, Caity!!

We know Sophie and Ms. Graff are busy. Thank you ladies for stopping by! All of Lisa graff's books can be purchased at Amazon or other stores. Please support our authors.

Time for a book giveaway! 

Want to win your own copy of Sophie Simon?
Farrar, Straus & Giroux is giving away a free copy of Sophie Simon Solves Them All to one lucky blog reader! Just send an email to graff.lisa@yahoo.com, along with the name of this blog, for a chance to win (winners will be notified within the week). Or follow along on the rest of Lisa's blog tour for more chances. For the full schedule of stops, visit www.lisagraff.com.