Rooftoppers

Product Information

And the setting? Let’s just say I want to go to Paris again…. now please. I adore Paris and it will always have a special place in my heart so it was so refreshing to read a story set there that wasn’t immediately bogged down by all the clichés that seem to latch themselves onto it. It was lovely to read about the city from a different perspective… one slightly higher than the others, shall we say? There are thousands and thousands of things we have not believed that turned out to be true. [...] One should not ingore the smallest glimmer of possiblity." Sophie doesn't tell Charles she's going on the roofs even though he told her to stay in her room. Recommended ages 10+ for violence, alcohol, and language. Sophie and Charles did not live neatly, but neatness, Sophie thought, was not necessary for happiness.” This is such a beautiful story told in a very distinct voice. There are times when you just know you are reading a classic and this is one such time.

Loved Charles her guardian. Did not love the ending. Really, that's it? What happened, mom? You've got some 'splaining to do. Mostly, though, it made me think of A Little Princess, with a very different sense of social justice: no romanticizing of the diamond mines into something out of The Arabian Nights; no meek and grateful poor children, and no patient suffering. Sophie is a wonderful character, the rooftoppers she meets are heartbreaking and yet so strong, and I fell head over heels with Charles. It's whimsical and funny, too, which I don't think of A Little Princess as being, and yet ... that rooftop feast, for hungry Matteo (and Sophie, though hers was a voluntary hunger!), had the same emotional payoff as the one from the earlier book. She disliked Sophie’s watching, listening face. “It’s not natural, in a little girl!” She hated their joint habit of writing each other notes on the wallpaper in the hall. She knows how to read, and how to draw. She knows the difference between a tortoise and a turtle. She knows one tree from another, and how to climb them. Only this morning she was telling me what is the collective noun for toads."Charles and Sophie go to the police station to find out if Vivienne was on the records of the sinking ship. The police refuse to let them see the ship’s records, which makes Charles and Sophie suspicious . When the music went right, it drained all the itch and fret from the world and left it glowing. When she did stretch and blink and lay her bow down hours later, Sophie would feel tougher, and braver. It was, she thought, like having eaten a meal of cream and moonlight. When practice went badly, it was just a chore, like brushing her teeth. Sophie had worked out that the good and bad days divided half and half. It was worth it.Sophie's comfort with rooftops will come in handy later. For when she is twelve, the National Childcare Agency tell Charles that she must go to a Home to be Properly Looked After. Finding a label concealed inside the cello case that shows it was made in Paris, they realize that Sophie's mother might have been French, so they escape across the Channel to look for traces of her. All they can afford is a cheap hotel, where Sophie has an attic room with a skylight, and once again she climbs up to practice on the roof. I thought this was a very original story and it was quite fast paced. I very much enjoyed it and the dialogue, particularly when Charles was speaking, was very entertaining. I became completely lost in the story and the descriptions of Paris at night made me really want to go and explore Paris by moonlight. But the more you think about, the less romantic it is. I mean, they’re probably really dirty and well, if you fell you’d pretty much be smushed and don’t even get me started on the pigeons. I can only just deal with the pigeons when I’m walking on solid ground but if I’m balancing on a weathervane and a pigeon flies at me? The setting moves between the rooftops of London and Paris as our charming pair of criminals run from the authorities who wish to take Sophie away. Behind this, though, is the search for Sophie's mother and all they have to lead the way is the cello and it's music.

In the end, I felt that the beginning of Rooftoppers reminded me of the important things in life, the idea that love is much more important than acting "proper" or "normal." But the rest of the book was not much more than a middle-grade, plot-driven, journey story.

Personalized picks at your fingertips

Sophie, whose only possession is the cello box she was found drifting in, lives for 12 happy years in Charles' household, homeschooled in the most unconventional ways, allowed to ask any question she likes, read whatever she takes a fancy to and climb any tree or rooftop in sight. Their iddylic existence is put in danger when social services decide this is no way to raise a proper lady. Miss Eliot did not approve of Charles, nor of Sophie. She disliked Charles's carelessness with money, and his lateness at dinner. Miss Eliot (from The National Childcare Agency) is also concerned about the baby’s (whom Charles has named Sophie) care.

From a plaque on her cello case, Sophie believes that her mother lives in Paris, so they decide to travel to France to escape the authorities who want to take Sophie away from Charles. I loved this quote, which takes place when a lady from the authorities comes to their house to say that Charles cannot look after Sophie because it really shines a light on Charles' character: "Your powers of observation are formidable," said Charles. "You are a credit to your optician." They have to travel very carefully to avoid being caught and Sophie has to cover her head because her hair is described as "being the colour of lightning" and therefore very recognisable. 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. I think it takes a certain kind of writer who can make the ordinary seem extraordinary with a few sentences and capture your imagination and encourage you, if only for a little while, to see the world in a slightly different way than you’d normally do. And Ms Rundell’s definitely that kind of writer. I think kids might appreciate the use of language, whereas I found some of it a bit kitschy. There were descriptions and even minor plot elements that chose quirky aesthetic sweetness over actual usefulness. A Chelsea bun that tastes like blue skies? It's a lovely sentence, but I'm no closer to knowing what that bun tastes like. And having a suit where a heart should be? It's been done - in fact, I'm pretty sure Meg Ryan says something very similar in You've Got Mail. But for young readers/writers just learning to wrangle words into a particular voice, this kind of language can be engaging and open up new possibilities. However, once the book became plot driven, with Sophie and Charles going on a journey to find her mother, it lost its magic for me.The baby was found wrapped for warmth in the musical score of a Beethoven symphony. It had drifted almost a mile from the ship, and was the last to be rescued. The man who lifted it into the rescue boat was a fellow passenger, and a scholar. It is a scholar’s job to notice things. He noticed that it was a girl, with hair the color of lightning, and the smile of a shy person.