Sophie's World

by Jostein Gaarder

Genre: Science fiction? Realistic fiction? Nonfiction? It's hard to classify. Let's just say it's nonfiction and fantasy combined.
Age group: 12+ (but older is fine too. If you read it at 12 you might want to read it again at, say, 22 and see if you notice anything new.)

One day, a perfectly normal 14-year-old girl called Sophie gets a letter in the mail. The letter has no return address—it's just a simple white envelope, and inside it contains a piece of paper with two questions on it: Who are you? and Where did the world come from? Sophie, who has never thought about these things before, suddenly finds herself asking these questions too. And soon another envelope arrives, with the start of a philosophy course inside.
But as Sophie is learning philosophy from the strange professor Alberto, she's also finding mysterious letters with cryptic messages addressed to a girl named Hilde, c/o Sophie. Who is Hilde, and why are these letters turning up? This is only one the questions Sophie must ask as she journeys into the world of philosophy.

My dad strongly recommended I read this book, but I put it off for a while. When I finally did start reading, I actually found it very interesting. Be warned; there's a lot of philosophy and talking about philosophy inside. It can seem daunting. But Jostein Gaarder does a really good job of making philosophy accessible for young people. He uses comparisons and allegories and metaphors and similes and whatnot to make concepts easier to understand. He often has Alberto say something and then demonstrate it, or have Sophie restate it in simpler terms. Sometimes certain sections require re-reading, but I learned a lot and enjoyed the story too.
The sub-plot with Hilde is AWESOME. At first it can be really confusing, and for a while I had no idea what Hilde had to do with anything. But in the middle of the book everything changes and everything falls into place and you understand! It is just remarkable. This book was very different from any of the other books I have ever read, fiction and nonfiction alike. It is very aware that it is a book. I think that is probably the aspect of it that I most enjoyed.