Rooftoppers: 10th Anniversary Edition

Product Information

Sophie looked down at herself. She fingered the material. It felt quite normal to her; still a little stiff from the shop, but otherwise fine. "How can you tell it's not a girl's shirt?" she asked. Miss Eliot also disliked Charles's hands, which were inky, and his hat, which was coming adrift round the brim. She disapproved of Sophie's clothes.

Rundell, Katherine (2016). 'And I am re-begot': the textual afterlives of John Donne (Thesis). University of Oxford.

When they travel to France to explore the possibility that some of Sophie's relatives may be in Paris, Charles disappears from the storyline and is replaced by the rooftoppers, homeless orphans living on the rooftops to avoid detection. Sophie sets out to find her mother. Prix Sorcières - Lauréats 2015: Romans Juniors - Lauréat". www.abf.asso.fr. Association des Bibliothécaires de France. 4 April 2016 . Retrieved 22 April 2017.

Katherine Rundell's charmingly lyrical style is dotty in the way Charles is dotty. In the London section she seems interested mainly in conversations, which have a high quota of witticism (wearing a skirt, Sophie looks as if she's "mugged a librarian") and aphorisms (lawyers have all "the decency and courage of lavatory paper"). In general, her metaphors are determinedly original. Such verbal showiness, though entertaining, has the disadvantage of showing up the misses as well as the successes, and in the early stages the story has the contrived manner, but not the solidly exciting matter, of a fairytale. Perhaps the pacing of the story was a conscious attempt by the author to mimic the theme of racing music. Cello music played double time is actually an important plot point in Rooftoppers. However, even if, interpreted in the most flattering light, the plot pacing was meant to replicate the musical theme, as a reader, I still found it to be unsatisfying. I saw Rooftoppers at the store last week and was instantly intrigued by the premise. With my wife being a music teacher, a silhouette of a cellist on a rooftop didn't hurt anything, either. Regardless, I had to think about it, but ended up buying it a few days later, thinking it would be a great book for my nine-year-old daughter.

Looking for something different

Katherine Rundell (born 1987) is an English author and academic. She is the author of Rooftoppers, which in 2015 won both the overall Waterstones Children's Book Prize [1] and the Blue Peter Book Award for Best Story, [2] and was short-listed for the Carnegie Medal. [3] She is a Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford [4] and has appeared as an expert guest on BBC Radio 4 programmes including Start the Week, [5] Poetry Please, [6] Seriously.... [7] and Private Passions. [8] it was bread rolls, four of them, soft in the middle and dusted with flour at the top. They were still warm from the oven, and they smelled of blue skies ... I always used to think," said Sophie, "that if love had a smell it would smell like hot bread ..." (Sophie in Paris... p. 185)

Mother: Great story with spoonfuls of creamy dream-like prose. Loved most young Sophie and her adventures with the rag-tag friends who dwell on rooftops and trees, especially Matteo and the almost more-than-friendship introduced by Rundell...reminiscent of Secret Garden with maybe a dash of Heathcliff in hardscrabble Matteo, the lone wolf kid all haunted, passionate, and grim. (Jump, Sophie, jump. You might die, but maybe you won't. And here, here are my scars from the knife and no, I don't talk about it, like ever, but it messed me up. And yes, give me your ankles to hold and I'll dangle you over the edges of reason and rooftops.)

Sad, child, but not stupid. It is difficult to believe extraordinary things. It’s a talent you have, Sophie. Don’t lose it."It is difficult to believe extraordinary things when you're an adult. But children can, which is why Katherine Rundell's wonderfully fanciful book won both the Waterstone and Blue Peter prizes for children's literature when it came out in 2014. By the same token, it is difficult for an adult to review; we can celebrate the times we share a childlike delight, certainly, but how can we be sure that when it gets a little repetitious to us, it is not in fact drawing the child reader even deeper into its spell? It was the green that emeralds and dragons usually come in; which felt to Sophie like a good omen.” The story ends abruptly with Sophie finding her mother, there was no mention of what would happen to Charles or the rooftoppers now. I enjoyed it tremendously ... The next time I go to Paris I will be looking up at the rooftops' - Jacqueline Wilson I have come to the conclusion that with few exceptions the best authors are now writing for "children." No idea why or how it happened but aside from my beloved Mystery genre I am overwhelmed with what is being written for the "youth market." I wonder if they deserve such riches as this extraordinarily fine effort by Rundell?

A venture onto the hotel rooftop opens Sophie’s world when she discovers a community of orphan children called Rooftoppers. They live in shadows and move at night, and some of them are highly dangerous. As she begins to spend more time on the rooftops, Sophie learns about bravery and love. Will the rooftoppers be the key to Sophie’s mother-hunt? The Explorer. Illustrated by Hannah Horn. Bloomsbury Publishing, 1 September 2017. ISBN 9781408854877 [29] It's true that this is a children's book, but I think readers of all ages will be able to enjoy it. The setting is in England and France and the descriptions of the cities are gorgeous—French pastry shops, parks, bridges, and streets. Short and sweet - an urban fairytale targeted at children that should be reviewed in the spirit it was written and not by grown-up standards.

Give AI a Try!

there is nothing i don't like about this book. and there is no way i can do it justice. an extended quote is the best i have for you. numerous descriptions of the Paris skyline from the rooftops, yet not a single mention of Tour Eiffel and Sacre Coeur, the two landmarks that are visible from any high point in the city. Hopeful, inspiring and thrilling in equal measure, this is a classic adventure story about pursuing your dreams and never ignoring a possible. I said it would take quite a bit to make me want to scramble around on Parisian rooftops, but actually, all it’s taken is reading Rooftoppers.