Rooftoppers
From the author of the internationally bestselling phenomenon Impossible Creatures
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
'A writer with an utterly distinctive voice and a wild imagination' - Philip Pullman
WINNER OF THE WATERSTONE'S CHILDREN'S BOOK PRIZE
A tale of wild hope and thrilling adventure on the rooftops of Paris, Rooftoppers is a multi-award-winning modern classic from internationally bestselling author Katherine Rundell
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 enjoyed it tremendously ... The next time I go to Paris I will be looking up at the rooftops' - Jacqueline Wilson
Get ready to go on an unforgettable with Katherine Rundell…
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
A baby found floating in a cello case in the English Channel, and Charles Maxim, a scholar and fellow survivor of a mysterious shipwreck, become an unconventional family, guided by the philosophy that "You should never ignore a possible." Permissive but caring, Charles lets the baby, whom he names Sophie, write on walls, eat off books, climb things, and indulge in "mother-watching" as the years pass, until unwanted attention from the National Childcare Agency sends them in search of Sophie's cello-playing mother. In Paris, 12-year-old Sophie takes to the rooftops, guided by irrepressible roof-dweller Matteo, an orphanage escapee who literally shows her the ropes; in one breathtaking scene, he walks her on a tightrope between buildings ("Grip with your toes. Left. Stop. Do not look down"). Eccentric, tactile food imagery appears throughout, from Charles's pork pie served on the Bible to Matteo's fresh-cooked rat. While the children's uncanny survival skills take occasionally graphic turns, as in a brutal fight between rooftopper tribes, the beauty of sky, music, and the belief in "extraordinary things" triumph in this whimsical and magical tale. Ages 8 12.
