By Huan Duong (April 16, 2005)

Most teenagers will find it tedious to read The Dream of Reason: A History of Philosophy from the Greeks to the Renaissance by Anthony Gottlieb or The History of Western Philosophy, by Bertrand Russell due to their length and difficulty. Perhaps they will even get bored when someone mentions philosophy to them. Creating a novel about this boring subject especially for young people, Jostein Gaarder shares his knowledge of the history of philosophy in an interesting and entertaining way.

One day after getting home from school, Sophie discovers in her mailbox a strange letter asking Who are you? and Where does the world come from? Then, she is enthralled into a correspondence philosophy course with a mysterious teacher whose eccentricity triggers her to find out who he is.

With all the philosophers presented in chronological order from the Pre-Socratic to the Big Bang, this book is in fact a 101 introductory philosophy textbook in the façade of a novel. The main part focuses on philosophy while the side story concentrates on Sophie and the mysterious teacher. Having some traits of a mystery novel, this book can get the young reader’s attention to both philosophy and "Sophie’s world."

Sophie’s World is perhaps not a great novel, but an outstanding quick review of philosophy, since it contains only about 500 pages. Read this book even if you have the slightest interest in philosophy because after absorbing its contents you will per chance fall in love with the subject. Furthermore, what it takes to learn philosophy is the faculty of wonder. I would strongly recommend it to the neophytes who wish to appease their curiosity about philosophy.