DIVDIVSophie is glad it’s summer because after her summer-school math class she can hang out at the local swimming pool with her best friend, Annalise. But she’s scared to jump off the high diving board, and that’s what everyone else wants to do, even Annalise. Maybe, Sophie thinks, she can train herself to be brave by making a list of scary things to do and doing them, one by one. If she can do a math problem on the board and ride her bike no-hands, surely she can manage that jump! Short, humorous, easy-to-read chapters with plenty of funny illustrations tell the lively story of Sophie’s summer project and the surprising discoveries she makes on the way to her goal./DIVDIVDIVThis early chapter book delivers its reassuring message with a light hand (and some interesting complications), and Sophie proves an honest and engaging narrator. Horn Book GuidebrbrWillner-Pardo puts the theme explored in Rosemary Wells’s Edward The Unready series into an easy chapter book with this accessible tale of a child working her way up to jumping from the local pool’s high board. When neither peer pressure nor her best friend Annalise’s example can get Sophie all the way up the ladder, she decides to try conquering her fear by doing other scary things, such as sleeping without a nightlight, eating a bug, and volunteering to do a math problem at the board in summer school. Finally, with her father’s gentle encouragement, she does the deed, explaining later to Annalise that she wasn’t any less frightened than beforeshe was just ready. The author’s…lively sense of humor and intelligent, considerate cast keep this from being weighted down by its agenda. Chang’s occasional black-and-white illustrations place sweet-faced young characters into tidy suburban settings.brKirkus Reviews/DIV