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Rooftoppers Paperback – June 3, 2014

by Katherine Rundell (Author), Terry Fan (Illustrator)
4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 3,527 ratings
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“The beauty of sky, music, and the belief in ‘extraordinary things’ triumph in this whimsical and magical tale” (Publishers Weekly) about a girl in search of her past who discovers a secret rooftop world in Paris.

Everyone thinks that Sophie is an orphan. True, there were no other recorded female survivors from the shipwreck that left baby Sophie floating in the English Channel in a cello case, but Sophie remembers seeing her mother wave for help. Her guardian tells her it is almost impossible that her mother is still alive—but “almost impossible” means “still possible.” And you should never ignore a possible.

So when the Welfare Agency writes to her guardian, threatening to send Sophie to an orphanage, they takes matters into their own hands and flee to Paris to look for Sophie’s mother, starting with the only clue they have—the address of the cello maker.

Evading the French authorities, she meets Matteo and his network of rooftoppers—urchins who live in the hidden spaces above the city. Together they scour the city in a search for Sophie’s mother—but can they find her before Sophie is caught and sent back to London? Or, more importantly, before she loses hope?

Phillip Pullman, author of the His Dark Materials series, calls Rooftoppers “the work of a writer with an utterly distinctive voice and a wild imagination.”
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Previous page
  1. Reading age
    7 - 12 years, from customers
  2. Print length
    304 pages
  3. Language
    English
  4. Grade level
    3 - 7
  5. Lexile measure
    490L
  6. Dimensions
    5.13 x 0.9 x 7.63 inches
  7. Publisher
    Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
  8. Publication date
    June 3, 2014
  9. ISBN-10
    1442490594
  10. ISBN-13
    978-1442490598
  11. See all details
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  1. Mothers are a thing you need, like air, she thought, and water. Even paper mothers were better than nothing; even imaginary ones. Mothers were a place to put down your heart. They were a resting stop to recover your breath.
    Highlighted by 125 Kindle readers
  2. ‘It’s the things you read at the age you are now which stick. Books crowbar the world open for you.’
    Highlighted by 121 Kindle readers
  3. ‘Your powers of observation are formidable,’ said Charles. ‘You are a credit to your optician.’
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From the Publisher

Editorial Reviews

Review

“Katherine Rundell’s Rooftoppers, like her previous novel Cartwheeling in Thunderstorms, is the work of a writer with an utterly distinctive voice and a wild imagination. I admire her novels very much, and I hope they find the success they deserve. I’m certainly looking forward to her next." -- Philip Pullman, author of the His Dark Materials series

"Katherine Rundell's Rooftoppers is a confection of lyrical prose. Bold imaginative leaps carry the reader from one Parisian rooftop to the next in this unique and beautifully written tale of a girl in search of the mother whom everyone else believes is dead." -- Maryrose Wood, author of The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place series

"Rooftoppers drew me in immediately and carried me along straight to the end with its original voice and lively story." -- Sharon Creech, Newbery-award winning author of Walk Two Moons

"Here comes a classic... Fantastic joyous storytelling. I was entranced. This is the only book I have ever read that made me long to cook sausages on a roof. From the first page onwards I knew I was reading something that sparkled (and it just got brighter and brighter). I'm a bit jealous actually; I wish I'd written it. Gorgeous, witty, kind, amazing, vertigo inducing, breathtaking, utterly charming, loved, loved, loved this little gem of a book. Hold your breath- this book is magic." -- Hilary McKay, Whitbread Children's Book award-winning author of the Casson Family series

* "Brava! This witty, inventively poetic, fairy-tale–like adventure shimmers with love, magic and music." ― Kirkus Reviews, starred review

* "The beauty of sky, music, and the belief in “extraordinary things” triumph in this whimsical and magical tale." ― Publishers Weekly, starred review

* "A glorious adventure…the story is magic." ― Booklist, starred review

“Some stories unfurl with such elegant wit that you feel the author must have been smiling constantly while typing away. Such is the case with Katherine Rundell's Rooftoppers, a sparkling and lovely novel." ― Wall Street Journal

"Rundell’s gentle poetic style gives Sophie’s story a full-heartedness that makes it take flight at times and sweeps readers along with it...Realistic fiction with the feel of fantasy, this atmospheric novel will appeal to a wide range of middle-grade readers." ― School Library Journal, starred review

“Rooftoppers, Katherine Rundell’s winsome contribution to the genre, is a throwback, avoiding the hard-boiled life lessons of the modern child’s thriller in favor of the wishful logic of the fairy tale." ― NYTBR

About the Author

Katherine Rundell is the author of Rooftoppers, Cartwheeling in Thunderstorms (a Boston Globe–Horn Book Award winner), The Wolf Wilder, The Explorer, The Good Thieves, and The Zebra’s Great Escape. She grew up in Zimbabwe, Brussels, and London, and is currently a Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford. She begins each day with a cartwheel and believes that reading is almost exactly the same as cartwheeling: it turns the world upside down and leaves you breathless. In her spare time, she enjoys walking on tightropes and trespassing on the rooftops of Oxford colleges.

Terry Fan received his formal art training at Ontario College of Art and Design in Toronto, Canada. His work is a blend of traditional and contemporary techniques, using ink or graphite mixed with digital. He spends his days (and nights) creating magical paintings, portraits, and prints. Terry is the cocreator of The Night Gardener, It Fell from the Sky, and Lizzy and the Cloud. Born in Illinois, he now lives in Toronto. Visit him online TheFanBrothers.com.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers; Reprint edition (June 3, 2014)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 304 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1442490594
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1442490598
  • Reading age ‏ : ‎ 7 - 12 years, from customers
  • Lexile measure ‏ : ‎ 490L
  • Grade level ‏ : ‎ 3 - 7
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.31 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.13 x 0.9 x 7.63 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 3,527 ratings

About the author

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Katherine Rundell

Katherine Rundell

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Katherine Rundell is a bestselling writer and a Fellow of St Catherine's College, Oxford. Her books have sold millions of copies, been translated into 40 languages and have won, among others, the Baillie Gifford Prize for non-fiction, the Boston Globe Horn Book Award, the Waterstones Book of the Year, the Costa Children's Book Award, the Andersen Prize in Italy and Le Prix Sorcières in France. She lives mostly in London and a little in Oxford, where she works on research into the Renaissance poet John Donne and occasionally goes climbing on rooftops late at night.

Customer reviews

4.6 out of 5 stars
4.6 out of 5
3,527 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Beth E. Williams
5.0 out of 5 stars For more than the kids: READ this enchanting little book, a complete joy on every page
Reviewed in the United States on December 7, 2013
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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?

Not for the world would I describe any of the narrative plot much less the details of the characters, THAT is for you to savor, and do yourself that small delight, savor every page. The author has such a unique turn of phrase, with unexpected associations that are meant to be both charming and disarming, that you find yourself being lured into a dream state so beautiful that to over-think it would be to spoil it.

So I will not. The manner of writing, its seductive and often wry way with words reminded me at times of a singular novel, Le Grand Meaulnes by Henry Alain-Fournier who disappeared (literally) in the carnage of Verdun in WW1 has the same delicacy and wistfulness (and which manages to translate even into English! BUT if possible, read it in French, or a variety of translations for cross-reference). Rundell has the same poetic nobility, yet as her audience is the "8 to 12" bracket there is also a sweetness and lightheartedness that Fournier I suspect never experienced in his own life and so only shows up in his female muse in that novel.

We are so much the more fortunate, Charles and Sophie are as genuinely endearing as Scout and her father Atticus, possibly the only other father-daughter duo that can match Rundell's pair.

Should you need further evidence to persuade you I offer Rundell herself:

"... (the baby) was wrapped for warmth in the musical score of a Beethoven symphony ... he noticed that it was a girl, with hair the color of lightning, and the smile of a shy person..." (p.2)

" ... he spoke English to people and French to cats and Latin to the birds..." (p.4)

"... I like my icing to be extravagant" (says the toddler Sophie, p. 9)

"... the more words in a house the better, Miss Eliot" (Charles to the busybody government child welfare agent, pg. 19)

" ... the cello sing, Charles! ... It feels like home. Do you see what I mean? Like fresh air!" (Sophie discovering the cello, p. 25)

" ... only weak thinkers do not love the sky" (Charles to his rooftop enthusiast, Sophie, p. 26)

and on and on it goes, and just when you think Rundell can't possibly make it any more achingly beautiful or touching or winsome she does:

"... 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)

Some things are better left unexplained. And so, just how Rundell came up with baby Sophie and her quirky Charles and the quest for her missing mother, well, that is for another reviewer, I will just say grab this awesome book and curl up in a warm blanket on a dreary rainy day and let yourself run loose on the rooftops of Paris with a very special friend in Sophie.

In time you might even let your kids or students read it. Share the magic.
34 people found this helpful
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W. Swardstrom
5.0 out of 5 stars Terrific...now to give it to my daughter!
Reviewed in the United States on October 20, 2013
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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.
I'm sure it will be -- I loved it.
The protagonist, Sophie, was rescued from a sinking ship by an English scholar named Charles Maxim. He loved and cared for her, but not the way a woman "should" be raised in the 1890's in London. The state is threatening to take Sophie away, but suddenly Sophie and Charles are making their way to Paris for a search for Sophie's presumed-dead mother. That's when the story really gets interesting as Sophie meets Matteo, an orphan who lives on the rooftops of Parisian homes and businesses. Sophie, now 13, joins in and discovers new wonders in the European city.
The story is told in a wonderful style, much like the Lemony Snicket books, just without the sense of doom and gloom that hung over each word. Instead, there was a sense of joy and wonder, even when Sophie was nearly taken away from the only parent she'd ever known.
I thought the author did a wonderful job of not chasing after storylines that would have been very logical, but would have taken away from the innocence and childlike text. Insurance fraud, murder and police cover-ups are all mentioned, but only briefly as the story quickly moves on like a child would expect.
Terrific book and I'll be passing it on to my daughter next!
20 people found this helpful
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Hilda Gertze
4.0 out of 5 stars A fast and lovely read.
Reviewed in the United States on July 8, 2018
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A beautiful story. Well crafted and interesting characters. Wolf Wilder is still my favourite of her novels but this one is lovely.
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D_shrink
5.0 out of 5 stars Imagination and Creativiity Abounds in the Storyline
Reviewed in the United States on September 30, 2013
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This story takes place near the end of the 19th Century shifting from England to Paris.

The story begins with the sinking of an English ship named the Queen Mary and the rescue by one survivor of another. A 36yo English bachelor named Charles Maxim rescues a cute little baby girl with platinum blond hair he describes as the color of lightning. He becomes her legal guardian and names her Sophie Maxim. Although they are not rich in finances, they are rich in the love they have for each other as they are all that each of them has. Sophie is a precocious child and is home schooled by Charles when he thinks to give her any lessons. She loves him and wants to do everything he does, so to keep her from drinking any of his whiskey, he pours it into a plain bottle and labels it Cat's Urine. The inquisitive. little Sophie smells it and then smells the backside of their cat and proclaims they didn't smell much alike to her. ;-) Things work out pretty well for the duo until Sophie turns 12, at which time, the Welfare agency says she will be sent away to an orphanage until she is 18, since Charles is not a blood relative and they didn't think it was proper for a single man to be in charge of a young woman of impressionable age. Both Sophie and Charles agree this is about the dumbest thing they have ever heard, so high-tail it to Paris to try and find her mother if she is even still alive. They pick Paris since that is where the Queen Mary sailed from before it sunk.

The first part of the book is devoted to Sophie and Charles loving relationship as she grows up from a 1yo to the age of 12. The second part then takes place in Paris as she and Charles try to find her mother. In their quest, while staying at a flea-bag hotel to try and avoid detection from the authorities who are looking for both of them, Sophie meets a young teen orphan named Matteo, who escaped an orphanage some years ago and lives on the rooftops of Parisian buildings along with some other orphaned teens, which is where the books title comes from.

Sophie, Matteo, and the other teen ROOFTOPPERS have numerous scary episodes [including a big fight with a rival teen gang that lives in the train station] while clambering along the roofs, using them as a vantage point to search for Sophie's mother. They think her mother's name is Vivienne Vert which translates to Green in English, but no FEMALE passengers or crew members survived from the sinking Queen Mary, but Sophie won't give up. Meanwhile the authorities are closing in trying to put Sophie in an orphanage and Charles in jail for evading the law.

There is enough angst to keep the average teen turning pages to find out what happens to Sophie and Matteo. Part of the plot involves a possible corrupt scheme by the Parisian Police Commissioner to conspire to sink ships and collect the insurance money on them. But a major plot point is the playing of Flaume's Requiem at double time speed on the cello. I don't wish to go further to spoil the final denouement for the reader. Let me say that the story is highly improbable, but has just enough believability in it to keep the average reader turning the pages till the end. A nice book for tweens and teens.
17 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

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Emdubya
5.0 out of 5 stars A delightful book
Reviewed in Canada on August 19, 2023
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This is a delightful book that will appeal to readers of all ages. It's very well written with a creative story-line and strong imagery. A good introduction to this talented author.
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Craobh Rua
5.0 out of 5 stars Never ignore a possible.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 19, 2023
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Katherine Rundell was born in Kent 1987, but grew up in Harare and Brussels. She is a graduate of St Catherine's College, Oxford, where apparently she developed an interest in rooftop climbing. Her second book, Rooftoppers, which was published in 2013 and her unusual hobby features in the book. It won the Waterstones Children's Book Prize, the Blue Peter Book Award for Best Story and the Prix Sorcières Junior novels category. It was also short-listed for the Carnegie Medal. A prequel, Skysteppers was published in 2021, for World Book Day.

Rooftoppers is set in the Victorian era and opens just after the sinking of the Queen Mary - a liner travelling from France to England. A baby girl is found floating in a cello case, and is taken aboard one of the lifeboats by Charles Maxim, one of the other passengers. Charles is at least reasonably well off, unmarried and quite possibly a little eccentric - but he names his foundling Sophie and chooses to raise her himself.

Sophie's upbringing proves to be a little unorthodox for a Victorian girl, but the pair prove to be very happy together. (In all honesty, Sophie probably turned out all the better for it). Over the years, the pair receive regular visits over the years from Miss Eliot, who works for the National Childcare Agency. Miss Eliot never fully approves of Charles' parenting, but allows him to carry on raising Sophie. That changes, however, when Sophie turns twelve. Miss Eliot now insists that it is no longer appropriate for Charles to raise a daughter, and Sophie is to be taken to an orphanage.

The pair are distraught and the aftermath sees a little damage done to Sophie's cello case. (They'd kept it all these years). However, the damage reveals an address in Paris. Although Sophie's parents were never tracked down, she had grown up convinced that her mother was firstly a cellist and secondly still alive. The pair run off to Paris, viewing this address as a starting point n the search for Sophie's family.

A very enjoyable book for kids, aimed the upper primary school age range. However, this adult also thoroughly enjoyed it. (The prequel, Skysteppers is also very good - if you can still get your hands on it). Thoroughly recommended.
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TJP
3.0 out of 5 stars Livre arrivé abîmé
Reviewed in France on September 26, 2022
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Contenu fidèle, mais le livre est arrivé abîmé, dommage
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TJP
3.0 out of 5 stars Livre arrivé abîmé
Reviewed in France on September 26, 2022
Contenu fidèle, mais le livre est arrivé abîmé, dommage
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EternallyPaperbound
5.0 out of 5 stars Students absolutely loved it
Reviewed in Australia on February 14, 2024
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Great story, the kids were invested right from the start, some even bought the book for their own bookshelves
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Clare Dickson
5.0 out of 5 stars Katherine Rundell has been a true revelation for me
Reviewed in Italy on May 15, 2016
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This is the first book I've read by Katherine Rundell, and I really hope it won't be the last. She delivers everything you expect a good yarn to be: adventure, excitement, friendship and loyalty, making it against all odds, physical challenges and a happy ending. Great for adults like me who never grow up... and for young adults too, of course!
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