I have not read anything by Katherine Rundell before, but now I really want to read more by this incredibly talented author. I highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a good story. I do, I’m afraid, understand books far more readily than I understand people. Books are so easy to get along with.” 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. Think of nighttime with a speaking voice. Or think how moonlight might talk, or think of ink, if ink had vocal chords. Give those things a narrow, aristocratic face with hooked eyebrows, and long arms and legs, and that is what the baby saw as she was lifted out of her cello case and up into safety. His name was Charles Maxim, and he determined, as he held her in his large hands - at arms length, as he would a leaky flowerpot - that he would keep her.

A brilliant new edition to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Katherine Rundell's modern classic tale of wild hope and thrilling adventure on the rooftops of Paris. This limited edition features the celebratory cover roundel and an extra letter from Katherine Rundell. Rooftoppers started out brilliantly; the first chapters were full of whimsy and a sense of randomness that I completely fell in love with. The beginning of the story, which chronicles how our heroine, Sophie, is found as a baby floating in the ocean in a cello case and adopted by the kind-hearted scholar, Charles, was a pure delight. An inspirational topic to inspire KS2 children to follow their dreams. A fabulous new children's classic by Katherine Rundell.

BookBrowse Review

When I was reading it and I was whisked away to Ms Rundell’s dreamlike Paris where the streets are still cobbled and the streetlights are being lit by hand, I couldn’t help but think of the film The Illusionist. Except Rooftoppers had a much happier and incredibly delightful ending.

The two decide to run away to Paris in search of Sophie’s mother, who she insists is still alive. While there, Sophie meets a peculiar boy who lives on the rooftops who may just lead her to find her mother.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?

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 and Charles did not live neatly, but neatness, Sophie thought, was not necessary for happiness.”

I think the language and the style of the book perfectly complimented Sophie’s rather strange upbringing and the fantastic and slightly naïve way she interprets what’s happening around her. She was a gorgeous narrator and definitely one of my favourite middle grade heroines. Fearless, inquisitive and completely adorable; she truly was brilliant.

Book Summary

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. 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.