Katherine Rundell

When authorities threaten to take Sophie, twelve, from Charles who has been her guardian since she was one and both survived a shipwreck, the pair goes to Paris to try to find Sophie's mother, and they are aided by Matteo and his band of "rooftoppers."

Rooftoppers

Go on an adventure with Katherine Rundell ... Winner of the Waterstones Children's Book Prize | Winner of the Blue Peter Book Award Shortlisted for the CILIP Carnegie Medal | From the winner of the Costa Children's Book Prize 'A writer with an utterly distinctive voice and a wild imagination' – Philip Pullman 'Read everything she writes' – Daily Mail Everyone tells Sophie that she was orphaned in a shipwreck – found floating in a cello case on the English Channel on her first birthday. But Sophie is convinced her mother also survived. When the Welfare Agency threatens to separate her from her guardian and send her to an orphanage, Sophie takes matters into her own hands, starting with the only clue she has – the address of a cello-maker in Paris. On the run from the authorities, Sophie finds Matteo and his network of rooftoppers – urchins who walk tightropes and live in the sky. In a race across the rooftops of Paris, will they be able to find her mother before it's too late? Hopeful, inspiring and thrilling in equal measure, this is a classic adventure story about pursuing your dreams and never ignoring a possible.

A good read. 100% reccomend. Made me think after I put it down. 

Isla Smith

Go on an adventure with Katherine Rundell ... Winner of the Waterstones Children's Book Prize Winner of the Blue Peter Book Award Shortlisted for the CILIP Carnegie Medal From the winner of the Costa Children's Book Prize 'A writer with an utterly distinctive voice and a wild imagination' - Philip Pullman Everyone tells Sophie that she was orphaned in a shipwreck - found floating in a cello case on the English Channel on her first birthday. But Sophie is convinced her mother also survived. When the Welfare Agency threatens to separate her from her guardian and send her to an orphanage, Sophie takes matters into her own hands, starting with the only clue she has - the address of a cello-maker in Paris. On the run from the authorities, Sophie finds Matteo and his network of rooftoppers - urchins who walk tightropes and live in the sky. In a race across the rooftops of Paris, will they be able to find her mother before it's too late? Hopeful, inspiring and thrilling in equal measure, this is a classic adventure story about pursuing your dreams and never ignoring a possible.

I haven't read a book like this in a long time. It brought back memories of being seven and wide eyed and dreaming, pouring through books like I needed them to live. Rundell perfectly captured that sense of wonder and magic in the world that children feel, and her writing and storytelling leaves you feeling like anything is possible. 

The prose is lyrical and effortless, the descriptions whimsical without being twee and the characters so heartfelt and endearing. 

Full of friendship and music and hope (and grownups who believe in children). It was so charming and I know that if it had been around when I was growing up it would have been one of my favourite books.

hat carter

I haven't read a book like this in a long time. It brought back memories of being seven and wide eyed and dreaming, pouring through books like I needed them to live. Rundell perfectly captured that sense of wonder and magic in the world that children feel, and her writing and storytelling leaves you feeling like anything is possible. 

The prose is lyrical and effortless, the descriptions whimsical without being twee and the characters so heartfelt and endearing. 

Full of friendship and music and hope (and grownups who believe in children). It was so charming and I know that if it had been around when I was growing up it would have been one of my favourite books.

fizzy

Mare Malvīne Īstenā 

MJ Laird

This book was actually pretty good. I really enjoyed the writing. I also enjoyed the characters. I enjoyed the story too. There wasn’t much I didn’t enjoy, really. But there were a few things, which is why I’m not giving this book a higher rating.

I think the biggest reason that I lowered my rating is that the ending didn’t feel like an end. Now, I don’t really mind stories where the ending isn’t an extremely clear happily ever after sort of ending. It’s fine with me if it’s a bit more vague but I felt like there was more that really did need to be answered. The whole point of the story is that Sophie wants to find her mother and she and Charles don’t want to be split up.

From this point on, there will be spoilers. I will try to hide the really big ones but I’m not hiding everything. 

So, they run away to France to find Sophie’s mother before Sophie is taken away from Charles. They try to get help from the police and end up in trouble with them instead. This is where Charles decides it would be best to leave Sophie alone in her hotel room and continue the search on his own. Sophie meets a boy who lives on the rooftops. He agrees to help her.  

(view spoiler)[There are quite a few comments made about Sophie’s mother being in trouble with the law. There are also comments about corrupt officers of the law. These officers are hiding records of the ship that went down and apparently killed Sophie’s mother as well as many others. (hide spoiler)] I didn’t feel that any of this was really resolved.

(view spoiler)[Sophie and the Rooftoppers acquire an address of her mother and have to go there. Matteo, her Rooftopper friend, doesn’t want to go there because of the Rooftoppers who live there. They end up going and the inevitable meeting of the gariers is a bit underwhelming. It’s lead up to and the reader is prepared for something very big and important and instead it seems to be over and done with very quickly and then seemingly forgotten. This may have only been my perception of it but I just found it extremely anticlimactic.  (hide spoiler)]

After this, (view spoiler)[Sophie and her mother are finally reunited.  (hide spoiler)] This was also a bit anticlimactic to me. It’s the end of the book and nothing really happens. I felt that there was still so much that needed answering. (view spoiler)[If her mother is in trouble with the law, will she be able to raise Sophie? Even if Sophie and her mother are fine, what about Charles? Will he just go back to London while Sophie and her mother stay in France? Will Charles be in trouble? He did essentially kidnap Sophie and take her to France. Does the state still technically have custody of Sophie and if they do, will she still be taken away?  (hide spoiler)]

Up until the ending, I was prepared to give this book four stars. The ending made that impossible for me. 

Negatives

They did say the d-word fairly frequently. They also took the Lord’s name in vain frequently. Other than that, I don’t remember any language.

This book has a lot to do with children living alone on rooftops and starving. Matteo kills birds and eat them, using the feathers and bones to make things. He kills and eats other small animals as well but the birds are talked about the most. As they are running along rooftops, there are some minor injuries. Matteo shows Sophie the scars his has acquired from the rooftops. It is revealed later on that some of these actually came from (view spoiler)[ the gariers (hide spoiler)] . They (view spoiler)[fight the gariers (hide spoiler)] which was pretty mild in my opinion but could bother some people. None of this really bothered me but I like to mention things like this in my reviews just in case it’s an issue for someone else.

Elad Schulman

First things first, somebody should have taught this girl not to talk to strangers. Second, why would you give a 12 year old kid her own hotel room? That's like asking her to disobey you. The only thing I liked about this book was the writing. The writing was quite beautiful. Other than that, though, the plot made no sense, and I didn't understand how a lot of this could happen.

Rooftoppers

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