Captain Sofia

Klassiek Fantastiek

by An Leysen

Sometimes, when Sofia lies in bed at night and closes her eyes, something magical happens: everything she imagines becomes real! Tonight her room changes into a sea with waves as high as the walls. On this occasion, and to the background of Ludwig Beethoven's music playing on demand, her imagination transforms her and she goes on an extraordinary sea adventure, where she is a pirate! She fights off enemy pirates coming on a big ship and becomes Captain Sofia, the bravest pirate of the 7 seas. From there, her sea adventure continues with fantastic images, sea monsters, and mermaids. The adventures of this beautifully illustrated picture book come totally alive with the sounds of classical music turning this into a bi-dimensional sensory experience.

This fantastic pirate story with compelling music fragments by Ludwig Beethoven is a tribute to childlike imagination and classical music. For fearless adventurers ages 4 years and up.

Genres: Picture Books, Childrens, Pirates

26 pages, Hardcover

First published August 1, 2024

Reviews

[Briar's Reviews · Rating 3 out of 5]

Captain Sofia by An Leysen is a fun, little tale about a very interesting pirate!

Sofia has a great imagination, and at night it gets to work! She dreams she is a pirate, riding the waves in the sea. Swash-buckling, sword fighting and fun fills the the pages of this book as Sofia figures out the life of a pirate.

I do really like the illustrations. It reminds me of pastels which is always very beautiful.

This is also apparently a musical book? I only have a digital advanced reader's copy so I cannot get this to work, but that's definitely a bonus! It lets the reader learn about Ludwig van Beethoven which gets me all excited!

Overall, this is a sweet and fun book!

Three out of five stars.

Thank you to NetGalley and Clavis Publishing for providing me a free copy of this book in exchange of an honest review.

[Reading_ Tamishly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Now that's some sea adventure and some good imagination!

I wish I could listen to the audio sounds that comes along with the narration.

The illustration is so well done. Watercolors, pencil colours and crayons all mixed well to create a fantasy world!

I love Sofie.

Thank you authors and Publisher for the advance reading copy.

[Srivalli (Semi-Hiatus) · Rating 4 out of 5]

That’s a cute little book about dreams and girls wanting to be anything they want, even pirates. The illustrations are pretty cute. I like the play of colors and the overall soft tone of shades used for the pictures. The story was what a little kiddo would love as a bedtime story; adventurous and cute without being scary. The ratings are more for the illustrations than the story. Since mine is an ecopy, I couldn’t listen to the musical bits.
The name Sofia has been spelled in two ways (Sofia and Sophia) in the book.
I received an ARC from NetGalley and Clavis Publishing for the ARC and am voluntarily leaving a review.

[Denise · Rating 2 out of 5]

I received a digital copy of this book from NetGalley. I did not get the opportunity to listen to the music that accompanies this story, but I love the idea of mixing mediums together. I enjoy music, and I know that music is a fantastic way to help students learn.

The illustrations in this book are beautiful, but I am concerned that some parents may find one of the pictures inappropriate. There is one picture showing a mermaid with no clothing over her breasts. If you are one who believes that issues like this are not a big deal, then please ignore this. If you prefer not to see frontal nudity in a book, even if it is on little girl mermaids, then you might not want to purchase this book for your child.

Even though I love the idea of including the music in the book, I will not be purchasing a copy of it for my school's library. Books with gadgets like this tend to get broken easily, and it is difficult to keep it in pristine condition for everyone.

[Joey Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thank you to Clavis Books and Netgalley for having this Earc to read and review.

While Sofia is asleep she dreams of being a fearsome pirate, going on a fun adventure taking over a ship, battling sea monsters and more. I loved reading this story it was filled with adventure, the illustrations were stunning and so beautiful capturing the story before us perfectly. The added classic musicals the story goes along adds the atmosphere and gets the mind working.

I highly recommend this book, it would be perfect as a peaceful book to read with a child before bed, with the relaxing classic music for the effect and the fun pirate adventure to imagine.

[Jeanie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved the music and how it plays with Sofia. She is fearless. She is girl. Loved it!

A special thank you to Clavis Publishing and Netgalley for the ARC and the opportunity to post an honest review.

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love the idea of including classical music in children's books! Each page of this picture book plays a snippet of a song by Beethoven. The music was selected well; the music stirs the emotions like the score of a movie, with a different song for each spread.

Sofia is a pirate in her dream, and she has an exciting adventure! The words vary in format, making it clear to the reader when to emphasize certain words.

The illustrations are beautiful. They appear to be a combination of watercolor and colored pencil.

At the end of the book, there is a spread dedicated to discussing Beethoven's life and music. I appreciate the inclusion of music education in the book.

The music and illustrations were fantastic. I feel the story could improve a little, since it seems to jump from event to event rather jarringly. Overall, I really enjoyed this book.

I received a digital ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to NetGalley and Clavis Publishing.

[Carla · Rating 4 out of 5]

Captain Sofia by An Leysen is a fun, little tale about a young girl with a vivid imagination. Every night when Sofia goes to bed, she dreams she is someone or something else. In this book, she dreams she is a pirate, riding the waves in the sea. Swash-buckling, sword fighting and fun fill the the pages of this book as Sofia lives out the life of a fearless pirate. The illustrations are beautiful. They are done in muted pastel colors giving that dreamlike appearance. My granddaughter enjoyed hearing about Sofia and immediately wanted to go downstairs and find a sword to play with. We found an old hat to decorate and she became a pirate for awhile sword fighting all her stuffed animals. I read an ebook, advanced copy so did not have the musical accompaniment. There are going to be buttons on the hardcover copy that will play snipits of classical music from Ludwig van Beethoven, to complement the text and action on the page. I think it is important that children be exposed to classical music and I hope this would whet their appetite to listen to some of the famous composers highlighted in this series, "Classic Fantastic". This was a fun book and I would love to read others in this series. The publisher generously provide a copy of this book upon request. The rating and opinions shared are my own.

[Melanie Dulaney · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful book for all the senses!

Sofia has a vivid imagination and with the illustrations provided by author/illustrator An Leysen, she and young readers/listeners will immerse themselves in a day in the life of a pirate. Clavis Publishers adds push & play buttons throughout the brief text and full spread art to add classical music making this a beautiful book for the mind, eyes, and ears. Back matter includes a list of all music used as well as a two page, illustrated biography of Ludwig Beethoven.

Perfect for ages 2 and up and sure to be read and listened to time and time again. Home, public and school libraries need this title as well as Leysen’s Wizard Sofia.

Thanks for the eARC, Edelweiss and the audio download, Clavis Publishing.

[Rachel · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Cute story perfect for bedtime. Will definitely be added to out rotation.

*Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this eARC.

[Mary · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a wonderfully fantastic adventure! Not only to we meet a fierce pirate but also discover some beautiful music that is hauntingly magnificent. Children should be exposed to more of the classics but this is a great start that will hopefully wet their appetite to listen to all famous composers. And children should be allowed to let their imaginations soar!
I received an advanced reader copy for free from NetGalley and am voluntarily leaving my review.

[Abigail · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sofia lies in bed at night and dreams of being a pirate in this original picture book from Belgian author/illustrator An Leysen, carried away by her imagination on a magical adventure. As she boards and commandeers another ship, confronts a massive sea monster, is rescued by a mermaid when swept overboard, and hunts for treasure in an island cave, her adventures are accompanied by musical selections from Beethoven. Each two-page spread features one or two symbols, alerting the reader of the buttons to be pushed at the back of the book to play various classical selections—see below for a complete list of the eleven musical snippets used—as well as the occasional sounds of water or magic....

Originally published in Dutch as Kapitein Sofia, and made available in English by the original publisher, Clavis, Captain Sofia is the first in the Classic Fantastic series, in which magical adventures in picture book form are paired with selections from well-known classical music composers. Here the composer is Ludwig von Beethoven—a brief two-page spread at the rear gives more information about him—and the resulting reading process is just charming. The story itself is engaging, highlighting a young girl's imaginative play, and the accompanying music accentuates the emotional register of each scene, and enhances the pleasure. I thought the use of Symphony No. 5 in the scene in which Sofia confronts the sea monster was particularly apt! The accompanying artwork is lovely, and also enhances the reader's pleasure! Recommended to picture book readers who enjoy stories of imagination and adventure, as well as those seeking picture books featuring musical enhancement.

Selections used include: String Quartet no. 7 in F, Op. 59.1 - I. Allegro / Quintet for Piano and Winds in E♭, Op. 16 - III Rondo / Coriolan Overture, Op. 62 / Violin Sonata No. 5 in F 'Frühling,' Op. 24 - I. Allegro / Symphony No. 7 in A, Op. 92 - III Presto, assai meno presto / Symphony No. 5 in C, Op. 67 - I Allegro con brio / Symphony No. 5 in C, Op. 67 - I Allegro con brio / Egmont, Op. 84 - Overture / Piano Trio No. 3 in C, Op. 1.3 - IV Finale, Prestissimo / Violin Concerto in D, Op. 61 - III Rondo, Allegro / Violin Concerto in D, Op. 61 - III Rondo, Allegro.

[Theediscerning · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well, this will be treasured and no mistake. What we have is a short, simple tale of a girl's fantasy of being a pirate, besting her enemies and more, and finding treasure, when all she really is doing is letting off some steam and using her imagination before she goes to bed. This would be standard fare, except for two very important reasons. One is that it is drawn by An Leysen, who hands down is one of the top five producers of such books anywhere. Fact.

The other is that this is a multi-media product, in that its board pages have buttons to push to activate the memory chip and play excerpts from Beethoven. Now sometimes this works, and sometimes not – the spread where our heroine boards her rival's ship has music to go with it that makes Beethoven sound like a plinky-plonky silent film accompanist. The opening notes of the 5th I don't think have ever heralded a scary sea monster before now. I think other buttons introduce relevant sound FX, too, but all I was privy to was the music. And what a great way to fashion an interest in classical music in a young, susceptible audience! If you're still helping a young book user out with the text (not that there's too much), a rehearsal or two would have you timing the cues perfectly to create the whole sonic effect. Even if you're letting a youngster play with it, before they run down the three cell batteries needed they will have got to marry the sound with the story, and made themselves much cleverer as a result – just think how music ties with storytelling via film, TV and of course the narratives behind classical music. Literacy in those fields is just as important as literacy in what's on the page. As a result this is definitely five stars.

[Jordan · Rating 1 out of 5]

The Beethoven music is beautiful. Unfortunately, that's about the extent of the good things I saw in the book. From the beginning the story resembles a poorly "cooked turkey soup". A patchwork with a too-obvious plot.
The back cover is totally misleading. It seems the author overpromises but underdelivers. She must have written the book in a rush, because it is neither inspiring nor well-written. It’s a pity that children’s books are nowadays written and published just for the sake of being published.
The main issues with this book:
- The characters seemed a bit stereotypical to me, flat;
- Unfortunately, all the moments in the book are equally UNmemorable, and the main character Sofia seems to remain a bit unimpressive;
- The dialogues in many places stand unnatural and declamatory;
- almost everything else stood a bit out of place - general descriptions without characteristic details;
- as a style it seemed dry, some words sounded out of place, there were some dissonances;
- the book is not well planned, the language is very poor and there are vocabulary errors.
After two pages my daughter stopped me while I was reading to her and asked for another book...
Even if I received the book for free (which I didn’t), this would still have been my review!
Save your 20 bucks for something else, literary ANYTHING else.
If there were 0 stars, I would give 0. One star is a lot.
My final impression of this book: I'm disappointed.
The book, while promising much, turned out to be a disappointment for the reasons mentioned.

[Lynne Wagner · Rating 4 out of 5]

Review: An educational picture book that combines the power of imagination, along with the excerpts of Beethoven’s most famous pieces. Sofia closes her eyes every night and is magically transported to a different adventure. Tonight’s adventure is Captain Sofia, the bravest and most terrifying of all pirates in the seven seas. Each page offers a glimpse into another step of her pirate adventure, along with one of Beethoven’s musical excerpts to build the emotion and power of the story. She faces another pirate, a sea monster, and even a mermaid on her quest for treasure.

There are additional pages included after the story to highlight the life of Ludwig van Beethoven and the final page allows the reader to see all of the selected music in one piece, along with the name. A wonderful choice to instill the love and wonder of music, along with the power of imagination.

Note: I received a free copy of this ebook from the publisher via NetGalley. My review is my own.

[joyce w. laudon · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love the concept of this title. It fuses a story with music by Beethoven. Readers of the published version of this title will be able to listen to some music snippets as they look at and read the story. This seems like a nice way to introduce young ones to some classical music.

Children who lie in bed creating stories will surely relate to Sofia who imagines that she is a pirate. Her adventures form the core of this nicely illustrated title. There are a sea monsters, a mermaid and even a treasure. So much fun for one evening.

Of note is that there are a playlist and some information about Beethoven at the end of the book.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this title. All opinions are my own.

[beckys_book_blog · Rating 4 out of 5]

My daughter loved this story. It is a very imaginative story about a little girl called Sofia who becomes a pirate in her dreams and goes on a wonderful adventure. Her adventures include battling sea monsters, meeting mermaids and discovering treasure. The illustrations are beautiful and my daughter spent a long time looking at each of them. Unfortunately we couldn't listen to the audio with the story (as our copy was an ebook) but I'm sure the music added even more to the story. There seemed to be a couple of typos in the print (Sofia was spelt as Sophia on a few of the pages.)
I would recommend this book to children aged 3-6 years.
Thank you NetGalley for this advanced copy.

[Ryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I preface this by saying I was reading a galley without all the bells and whistles, otherwise this might have been higher. The author matches the music of Beethoven to a story of a girl's adventures in her dream. A dream of being a pirate, meeting mermaids, and finding buried treasure. Each page has some music that is supposed to be played while reading, as well as other sounds (those are missing in the galley). The story is great and I think it will work great with the music that was picked (it’s all listed in the back). I also like that a mini biography of Beethoven was included at the end.

[Hal · Rating 5 out of 5]

arc provided by the publisher via netgalley in exchange for an honest review

In this beautiful story we follow Sofia on her imaginative journey as a pirate on the search for treasure.

The art in this was super captivating and colourful, I really think kids will have a blast reading this and poring over each and every image. This book also features music and sound effects which I think will just heighten the experience even more!

This is the perfect book for kids who have an active imagination! I highly recommend it!

5/5⭐️

[Becky · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a beautiful book with detailed but soft illustrations. Sofia imagines she's a pirate and battles a sea monster by staring it down. Parents might want to be aware that the mermaid in this book doesn't wear the usual seashells to cover her chest, though she is a young girl. At the end of the story, young readers are given a brief summary of Beethoven's life and introduced to his Symphony No 5. The best thing about this book are the 13 music fragments that are included with buttons on each page. Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for a digital copy.

[Jo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Should be fun reading this book, with background musics to help you imagine the scene better. Moreover, the musics are from Beethoven! A good way to introduce classical musics and composer to kids.

This is the story of Sofia, who can be anything she wants, if she dreams about it. This time being a strong pirate captain, who is fearless and adventurous. The copy provided didn't include the music, although we have an excerpt to listen to, and it sounds fun merging with the story. Please have a read too!

[Kristin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Captain Sofia is a fun pairing of lovely classical music and beautiful artwork that makes Sofia's imagined adventures come to life! Each time Sofia closes her eyes she dreams up a new and exciting experience. One moment she may be a princess in a castle, then a witch concocting potions, and finally, a pirate! Journey along with Sofia to see where her spirited mind will take you in this delightful new children's book. I highly recommend it!

Thank you to NetGalley and Clavis Publishing for the opportunity to review an ARC of this book!

[Katherina Martin · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a lovely book. It was supposed to be a book with music but unfortunately we couldn't get the music portion to play. Looking at the pictures though made it so easy to imagine the music that would have been playing. My 5 year old loved it and we read it quite a few times in a row. I will definitely recommend this book to children with kindergartners. I will probably purchase it so that we can hear the music and read it a few more times. This book was given to me by Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.

[Novel Obsession · Rating 4 out of 5]

Captain Sofia by An Leysen is a lovely story of imagination. She is brave and strong. She can be so many things in her mind. The illustrations add to the story of play pretend and sweet joy.

I will note the copy I received was digital, and hence we did not have the option to press buttons to play the music. Had we, my review of the book might have been different. I have yet to find a book with audio buttons which wasn’t annoying.

Disclaimer: An advance copy was provided by Clavis Publishing. Originally posted at novelobsession.com

[Alexanderia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thanks NetGalley for the ARC! My toddler and I enjoyed every page!!! We always enjoy a good book that helps encourage imagination and Sofia came through with that! Even without being able to hear the sound element of this book, we still enjoyed reading the story. What toddler doesn't enjoy pirates, mermaids, and treasure?! Looking forward to adding a hard copy to our bookshelf so we can experience the music portion with the story. It will make for a great before bed story.

[Mortisha Cassavetes · Rating 5 out of 5]

When Sofia lays down at night for bed, magical things fills her room. Whales, mermaids and a huge pirate ship to the music of Beethoven. Beautiful illustrations! I really loved them. I highly recommend this book to kids of all ages. Thanks so much #netgalley for the early review copy. Amazingly wonderful!

[Electra (spoonfulofhygge) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ttruly loved this one! Where to start?
A girl pirate? The stunning illustrations that each page looked and felt like a painting? The músic that accompanied the book? The Info at the end about Beethoven?
Loved it so much and happy to add it to my collection for my little one.

Thank you Netgalley for a copy in exchange for an honest review.

[Etienne · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love the art of this picture book a lot. The story is a fun little pirate adventure. Cute and entertaining, I love the sort of “open ending” which will allow children to work out their imagination a bit. The musical part is probably great, but having a digital arc and wasn’t able to “fully experience” it, but I’m sure this is a nice add-on. Good one!

[Deena Abutaha · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sofia every night when she closes her eyes whatever she imagines becomes real. Tonight Sofia is a brave pirate captain sailing the Sevens Seas searching for treasure. Will she find it before she opens her eyes again?
This was a lovely tale of imagination. I would recommend this book to my students.

*This review is from a free ARC on NetGalley in return for an honest review.

[Victoria Jackson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Captain Sofia is a lovely story that both myself and my 4 year old son enjoyed. The illustrations were beautiful and really enhanced the story.

Thank you to NetGalley and Clavis Publishing for my ARC.