This might just be me, as I tend to have issues with most endings, but I was really unsatisfied with how this story wrapped up. Like, Sophie found her mom, but then it just ends? The rooftoppers storyline felt unresolved, as well as Charles’s. We never find out what happened with her mom, how she is still alive, if she gets to keep Sophie… several times the claim is made that women rarely play the cello. I am not sure what the intended timeline of the story is, but I would like to point out that my favorite virtuoso on the instrument is Jacqueline du Pre. Miss Eliot did not approve of Charles, nor of Sophie. She disliked Charles's carelessness with money, and his lateness at dinner. CELEBRATING 10 HIGH-FLYING YEARS OF THE MULTI-AWARD-WINNING MODERN CLASSIC, FROM THE AUTHOR OF THE EXPLORER

Think of nighttime with a speaking voice. Or think how moonlight might talk, or think of ink, if ink had vocal cords. 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 arm’s length, as he would a leaky flowerpot—that he would keep her.As the lady from the National Childcare Agency will often point out, Charles has little idea of how to bring up a female infant. But he is both imaginative and kind. Soon Sophie (for that's what he calls her) is enjoying the kind of upbringing any child would dream about, with lots of exciting things to explore and no silly rules about dressing like a little lady or not writing on the walls. Charles's idea of a perfect birthday treat is eating a tub of ice-cream on top of a coach-and-four galloping around Hyde Park in the rain. And he reads to her from Shakespeare and takes her to concerts, at one of which she hears a cello and falls in love. So he buys her one:

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? Katherine spent her childhood in Africa and Europe before taking her degree at the University of Oxford and becoming a Fellow of All Souls College. As well as writing, she studies Renaissance literature and occasionally goes climbing on the rooftops late at night. stars. This is pretty close to five stars and I might change my mind yet. Just a beautiful, lyrical and magical book, even though there is no literal magic or fantasy elements. The story ends abruptly with Sophie finding her mother, there was no mention of what would happen to Charles or the rooftoppers now. Among the many lessons Charles has given Sophie, he has taught her not to ignore life’s possibilities.

Loved Charles her guardian. Did not love the ending. Really, that's it? What happened, mom? You've got some 'splaining to do. Miss Eliot (from The National Childcare Agency) is also concerned about the baby’s (whom Charles has named Sophie) care.This isn’t part of the review but !!!! oh Charles, let’s go on adventures! You’re magnificent and I adore your mind. They told me that she was dead, and I didn’t believe them. Why did she believe it? Why didn’t she keep looking?"

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. 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. 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. Matteo and some other rooftop children help Sophie to break into the police files. They find out that all the ship's musicians were recorded as being men. However, one of the musicians, called George Green , looks very similar to Sophie and is wearing a woman's shirt in a photograph.Rooftoppers by Katherine Rundell has the quality and the warmth of a children’s classic. It is a gorgeous story about a little girl in search for her mother. There aren’t many stories like this, not anymore, and as a parent, I’m extremely grateful when I discover one to share with my daughter. 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. Charles Maxim is an unconventional scholar who tends to walk into lamp posts while reading. He is also a typical Londoner who never gets out of the apartment without an umbrella. When he saves a one year-old child from a sinking cruise ship, Charles decides he wants to keep her and gives her the name Sophie. Maxim and Sophie, threatened with immediate eviction to an orphanage, decide to run out of the country and head to Paris, chasing a wild dream of finding the girl's mother from a clue hidden in the cello box. Mother-hunting becomes the main interest for Sophie. Without impunding in any way her love for Charles, the girl is in need of "A place to put down her heart. A resting stop to recover her breath. A set of stars and maps." The Parisian authorities prove to be even more inflexible and corrupt than the London ones, and Sophie only finds help and understanding in a band of outlaws and orphans like herself - a group of lost children living like savages among the rooftops of the city. Thus is the rooftoppers club born, an a charming novel written.

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. 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. Charles drinks whiskey and offers some to Sophie (she takes a sip but doesn't like it). Sophie mentions previously trying alcohol. 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. 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.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. just a wonderful, magical, extraordinary book. the kind of classic-feeling book you can put in the hands of a little girl and feel confident that with it, she will grow into a wonderful, magical, extraordinary creature herself. it might work on boys, too, who knows? but right now i am speaking to the fathers i know with young daughters who are looking for that book that will leave an impression on them in a literary role-model kind of way: a strong and smart and brave little girl raised by an eccentric man who may not have taught her much about how to be conventional, but who has shared a love of language and adventure, and has raised her to be fierce and loyal and courageous and independent. It’s a mystery that drives the story, but the characters of the determined Sophie and bookish Charles are easy to love, which really makes the story as good as it is. The idea of “rooftoppers”, the people who live on roofs, jumping from rooftop to rooftop, is interesting, and it’s fun to follow Sophie as she becomes tangled up with the rooftoppers. 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. This would be a beautiful gift for a mother to give to her young daughter, but it goes deeper and is so much more than that, unwritten, unspoken, unbroken bond. It is about the power of love, in all its many forms, all of them fierce and loyal.