Sophie the Snoop Read online

  SOPHIE the

  SNOOP

  by Lara Bergen

  illustrated by Laura Tallardy

  For Parker

  Contents

  Cover

  Title Page

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Preview

  Also Available

  About the Auther

  Copyright

  What a day! Sophie thought.

  Because today was the day she was something. And that something was Sophie the Snoop.

  Yes! That was who she was from now on.

  More than anything, Sophie wanted to be extra-special. To be extra-great at … something. She had tried to be great at everything at first. But that was hard. So then she had tried to be great at one thing. Like being a hero. Or being honest. Or being rich. But that was hard, too.

  Then, suddenly, it came to her in a great big whoosh. Sophie was great at solving mysteries. She was a natural snoop!

  First she solved the Missing Horse Bank Mystery, just like that. (The thief had been her little brother, Max.)

  Then she solved the Mystery of the Missing Business Cards. (Of course, that wasn’t really a mystery. Sophie had taken her dad’s cards. But he never would have found them without her. That was a fact.)

  Now Sophie the Snoop could not wait to solve her next case — whatever it was!

  So she was very ready when her mom called out, “It’s almost time to go to school. Hey! Who left the toilet seat up?”

  Sophie tiptoed to the downstairs bathroom — the scene of the crime. (She knew that snoops tiptoed, so she had to. But she did it very fast.)

  “This is a case for Sophie the Snoop, Mom!” she cried.

  Sophie looked around the bathroom and found a clue almost right away. It was the mug she had painted for her dad’s birthday. She picked it up off the sink.

  “Aha!” she said.

  Sophie flashed her mom a big smile and headed for the kitchen. Her dad was waiting by the toaster for something to pop up. Sophie tiptoed up behind him and shouted, “Gotcha!”

  Her dad turned, surprised, and saw the mug. He sighed and held up his hands. “Sure enough. That’s my kitten mug. Guilty as charged,” he told her.

  Sophie smiled. She crossed her arms. “I knew it! No case is too tough for Sophie the Snoop!” she declared.

  She did not even try to tell her dad that the picture on the mug was not really of Tiptoe the kitten. It was of him. (She should know. She had painted it. Oh, well. That was okay. She was not Sophie the Artist, after all.)

  Sophie’s mom walked up behind her. She gave Sophie’s shoulder a soft squeeze. “Good work, Sherlock Holmes.”

  Sophie felt proud. But also puzzled. “Who’s Sherlock Holmes?” she had to ask.

  “Who’s Sherlock Holmes?” her dad repeated. “Why, he’s only one of the greatest detectives ever. Remember? I dressed up like him for Halloween last year?”

  Sophie was still confused.

  “Sherlock Holmes was the English guy with the hat and the magnifying glass,” her dad went on. “You know — ‘Elementary, my dear Watson!’” he said with a funny accent. It was British, Sophie thought.

  Sophie had to giggle. But she nodded, too. Yep. She remembered the hat. It had a brim on the front and the back.

  So one of the greatest detectives ever wore it, huh? Sophie thought about that for a minute.

  Then she thought about the box in the basement. The one with “Costumes” written on the side. Was the hat in there?

  She left her parents in the kitchen. And she tiptoed downstairs to find out!

  Ugh, Sophie thought as she reached the bottom of the basement stairs. This was not going to be an easy job — even for a snoop as great as Sophie! The basement was not just full of boxes — it was full of all kinds of stuff.

  There was stuff like old baby toys that even two-year-old Max had outgrown, her dad’s dusty drum set, and exactly forty-one silver trophies. They all belonged to Sophie’s mom. (Sophie did not know why she kept them all the way down there. If they were Sophie’s trophies, they’d be in the living room, on display!)

  Sophie sighed and looked all around. She had to find that costume box somehow. But where should she start?

  She tiptoed around very slowly, just like a snoop should. Then she saw bins full of lights and Christmas ornaments. Next to those was a stack of Easter baskets. Plus a bag of pink plastic grass.

  Is there more holiday stuff there? Sophie wondered.

  She poked around. Yes! There were the cauldrons for trick-or-treat candy. The plastic tombstones for the front yard. A sack of fake spiderwebs. Oh! And the brain-shaped Jell-O mold.

  And there was also the costume box!

  Sophie pumped her fist. Bingo! Sophie the Snoop had done it again.

  She yanked off the lid and dug in.

  She tossed aside the princess dresses and cat ears and fairy wings. Then she came to the Batman suit she had worn when she was four. (What had she been thinking?!) She dropped it on the floor.

  Next she pulled out a whole stack of hats — fireman, wizard, cowboy, and more. She was getting closer! Then, at last, at the very bottom, she found the Sherlock Holmes hat she was looking for.

  She smiled and put it on.

  The hat was big. And kind of itchy. Sophie was not sure which side was the front. She wondered why Sherlock Holmes had picked it. But if one of the greatest detectives ever wore it, Sophie the Snoop would, too.

  Then Sophie spotted something else in the costume box. The big magnifying glass! She guessed that great detectives had to solve all mysteries … no matter how small.

  She picked up the magnifying glass and looked at her hand under it. She saw lines she’d never seen before!

  She felt something tickle her ankle. She jumped, then looked down. It was Tiptoe, her kitten.

  “Tiptoe! Let me look at you!” she said.

  Hey, what a great name for a snoop’s pet! she thought.

  She knelt down and held the magnifying glass to Tiptoe’s nose. Then she looked at her ears and her eyes and the tiny pads on her toes.

  In fact, once Sophie started, she could not stop looking at everything up close!

  Suddenly, Sophie heard a sound. It was coming from upstairs.

  “SOPHIE!”

  Sophie almost answered. But then she stopped. Her mom was not calling her whole name. She was Sophie the Snoop, after all!

  She rubbed Tiptoe’s chin and waited.

  Then Sophie heard something else: “Sophie Hamm Miller! Where are you? You’re going to miss the bus!”

  Uh-oh! That was not the whole name Sophie had hoped to hear. But she knew she’d better go.

  She’d be in trouble if she didn’t. That was no mystery at all!

  Sophie tiptoed up to the bus stop just in time. The school bus was rolling down the street.

  “Cool hat!” said her best friend, Kate Barry, when she saw Sophie.

  “Why, thank you!” Sophie said back. (She tried to say it with an English accent. But she wasn’t sure it came out right. At all.)

  Then Sophie held up the magnifying glass in front of her eye. “And how were your blueberry pancakes this morning?” she asked.

  Kate’s mouth fell open. “How did you know?”

  Sophie grinned. “Elementary, my dear Kate. Your lips are purple. And there’s syrup on your shirt.”

  Kate quickly licked her lips — and the syrup off her shirt. Then she climbed onto the bus behind Sophie.

  “Hey, why are you tiptoeing?” Kate asked.


  Sophie led Kate to their favorite seat, all the way in the back. “Because I’m a snoop, and snoops tiptoe,” she said. “Everyone knows that.”

  Then Sophie told Kate all about her new name.

  “Sophie the Snoop … I like it!” Kate said.

  Kate was so great! Sophie hugged her.

  “There’s just one thing,” Kate added. “I get the tiptoeing. But do you really have to talk like that?”

  Was Kate talking about her British accent?

  “You don’t like it?” Sophie asked.

  Kate twisted her mouth and shrugged.

  Sophie shrugged, too. “Okay,” she said in her normal voice. That was a lot easier, anyway. Besides, snoops solved mysteries. What did it matter how they talked?

  Sophie just hoped everyone else would like her name as much as Kate did. Then they could call her Sophie the Snoop instead of boring Sophie M. But first she needed to solve more mysteries! So she made an announcement as soon as she got to room 10.

  “Sophie the Snoop, at your service!” she said. “There is no mystery I can’t solve!”

  “Is that why you’re wearing that funny hat?” Dean asked.

  Funny? Sophie straightened it. “For your information, this is the hat the world’s greatest detectives wear,” she said.

  “Oh, yeah? I don’t think so.” Grace shook her head. “Nancy Drew is the world’s greatest detective. And she never wears funny hats.”

  Sophie frowned. She did not know too much about Nancy Drew. But she bet if she’d had a hat like Sophie’s, she would have worn it, too.

  “All I’m saying is I solve mysteries. That’s what I do,” Sophie said.

  Sydney got a worried look. “Do we have to pay you?” she asked.

  Sophie guessed that Sydney remembered how she’d tried to get rich the other day. She had helped her friends, but only if they paid her.

  “Nope,” Sophie told Sydney. “My mystery-solving is all free!”

  “Hey! I’ve got a mystery,” Toby Myers said suddenly.

  Sophie turned to him. Toby? He was the last person she thought would speak up.

  Not that Toby couldn’t have a mystery. Anyone could! It was just that Toby never talked to Sophie. At least not anymore.

  From preschool until last year, Toby and Sophie had been best friends. (In fact, Sophie remembered that back when they were four, they had both been Batman for Halloween.) But now Toby hung out with yucky Archie Dolan. And the fact was he was just not the same anymore. But that was fine with Sophie — now she had Kate.

  But maybe Toby was changing back. (Some where way down deep inside her, Sophie always kind of hoped he might.)

  “What’s your mystery?” she asked him with a big grin.

  Toby started to laugh. “Who cut the cheese?” he yelled.

  That was when Archie walked up and gave him a high five.

  Sophie’s eyes got hot. She crossed her arms and turned away. And the hope she’d had that Toby might change? She pushed it way down deep inside her again.

  In the meantime, Kate stepped up. “That’s no mystery, Toby,” she said. “Everyone knows you cut the cheese!”

  Ha! Kate really was great.

  The other kids laughed. Sophie grinned and let out a big breath.

  Just then, Ms. Moffly waved to them from behind her desk. Sophie thought her dress looked extra-pretty that day. But her hair was kind of a mess.

  “Class! Let’s get started,” Ms. Moffly called. Then she blew her nose. “But first, who can tell me who this homework belongs to?”

  Ms. Moffly held up a math worksheet. Someone had forgotten to sign his or her name. She waited for an answer, but all she got were shrugs and “Not me’s.”

  Suddenly, Sophie realized something. Her first case of the school day had just popped up!

  “Ms. Moffly! Ms. Moffly!” she cried. “This is a case for me, Sophie the Snoop!”

  Sophie pulled out her magnifying glass. Then she tiptoed up to the teacher’s desk. She held out her hand. “Now I will examine the evidence,” she said.

  Ms. Moffly smiled and handed the worksheet over. Sophie could tell she was glad for the help. Ms. Moffly was pretty good at teaching times tables. And she was not bad at all at reading out loud. But she was no detective. They probably did not teach that at teacher school. That was too bad.

  “Okay.” Sophie studied the paper. She recognized the math problems they had done the night before. “Aha!” she said. “A clue: Look at all this eraser stuff!”

  “Does that tell you something?” Ms. Moffly asked. Sophie thought she looked very impressed.

  “Sure!” Sophie said. “It tells me that this homework belongs to someone who has a pink eraser. And who changes their mind a lot.”

  Then Sophie pointed to a spot on the paper. It looked like gravy. Or chocolate. Or mud. “And see this?” she asked Ms. Moffly. “This tells me that whoever this paper belongs to is a big slob.”

  Ms. Moffly sighed and nodded. “Yes. I see that a lot.”

  “Of course, the real clue is the handwriting,” Sophie went on. “So here’s what we do. Have everyone do their homework again, and I’ll compare those worksheets to this one.”

  Ms. Moffly clicked her tongue. “Mmm, I don’t know, Sophie. I’m not sure we have time for that.”

  Sophie shrugged. “Well … okay. Then I guess I’ll have to work with what we’ve got,” she said. She turned to the blackboard and picked up some chalk. “So, what do we know?”

  The Case of the Unsigned Homework

  Clue #1 – The suspect uses a pink eraser.

  Clue #2 – The suspect eats gravy, chocolate, or mud.

  Clue #3 – The suspect writes numbers like this: 1, 2, 3.

  All of a sudden, Sophie stopped.

  She looked at her 3. And her 2. And her 1.

  Then she thought about the pink eraser on her pencil. And the chocolate chip cookies she had eaten the night before … at the very same time she was doing her homework.

  Then Sophie looked at the homework paper. Yep. Those looked like the same answers — exactly — that she had gotten.

  Sophie put the paper down. She wrote her name at the top. Then she handed it back to Ms. Moffly. “Um, here, Ms. Moffly. Case closed.”

  Ms. Moffly smiled and patted Sophie on the hat. “Good work, Sophie the Snoop.”

  Okay. So the Case of the Unsigned Homework wasn’t the greatest mystery in the world. But it was something, at least. Bring on the next one! Sophie thought.

  The only thing was that the next mystery did not come. Suddenly, it was three o’clock. School was over, and no more cases had popped up.

  That was the problem with school, Sophie guessed. No rich people ever got kidnapped. And no jewels ever got robbed. But still. What good was being a snoop if there was nothing to snoop … at all?

  Sophie wondered if Sherlock Holmes had felt the same way when he was in school.

  “Hey, I have a mystery,” Kate said as they tiptoed to the bus together.

  Hooray! It was about time!

  “What is it?” Sophie asked.

  “Where are all the mysteries?” Kate said, laughing.

  Sophie grinned. But she also rolled her eyes.

  “Hey! Maybe something will happen at soccer practice,” Kate went on. “Maybe someone will kidnap the coach!”

  Sophie nodded. Probably not …

  But she could always hope.

  Soccer was a new thing for Sophie. She had just started playing that year.

  She had wanted to do something after school. But she hadn’t been sure what. (Just as long as it wasn’t ballet. Her sister, Hayley, did enough of that for both of them.)

  Then Kate told Sophie about soccer. She had played the year before.

  So Sophie’s mom signed her up, too.

  So far, it was pretty fun, though Sophie thought it would be more fun if her ball didn’t always try to roll away. At practice, she was always chasing it while everyone else played.

  It
would also be nice if her feet would listen to her — for once. Did they think it was funny when she tried to kick and missed the ball?

  Sophie did not.

  What Sophie liked best about soccer were the uniforms. They were the best color — sour-apple green! And the girls on her team were all supernice. Plus Coach Courtney was great. Especially when she said things like “Good job, Sophie! You’re getting better every week!”

  That day Coach Courtney said something else, though. Something not as great. That day she said, “Sophie, what’s with all this running on your toes? Do you think you could stop? And that’s a pretty cool hat. But you can’t wear it while you play, you know.”

  Oh.

  Actually, maybe those were good things after all. Tiptoe soccer was not easy. And Sophie’s detective hat was making her head sweat a lot. Plus no matter how many times she pushed it back, it kept sliding down to her nose.

  Sophie ran over to the sideline, where the girls kept their soccer bags. They all looked the same and were labeled “Official” — which was pretty cool, Sophie thought.

  Sophie picked up her bag and dropped her hat inside. Her magnifying glass was already there. Plus a notebook. And a pencil. Just in case there was a soccer mystery. A snoop had to be ready, after all!

  She spotted her water bottle on the grass. She picked it up and took a long sip. Then she slipped it into her bag, pulled the drawstring tight, and ran back onto the field.

  To start, the team did some drills. They kicked the ball with both sides of their feet. Then they had dribbling races. (And for the first time, Sophie beat Kate!)

  After that, Coach Courtney handed out big, bright orange tank tops to half the girls.

  It was time to play a real game!

  “Can I be goalie?” Sophie asked. Not because she liked to block the ball, but because then she wouldn’t have to run around as much.

  During her time in goal, Sophie only let the ball by twice. That was good for her! Then her turn was over. It was time to run back and forth across the field. Sophie got the ball and took a shot … and wow! She scored!

  Or — no. She would have scored — if she hadn’t shot the ball into her own team’s goal.