Rooftoppers-Katherine Rundell

Sophie Maxim is an unusual young girl. She wears trousers and boys’ shirts, and social worker, Miss Elis believes that is unacceptable for a girl of Sophie’s age to be wearing boys’ clothing. Sophie was swept into Charles Maxim’s care when she was found drifting in a cello case on the English Channel amongst the wreckage of the Queen Mary (a boat). How a baby got into the cello case is a mystery in itself.

   Everyone constantly reminds Sophie that her mother is dead and that she died in the shipwreck, though Sophie has other ideas! Charles and Sophie go on an adventure of mother-hunting in the gloomy streets of Paris, where she meets the extraordinary, roof climbing Matteo.  Together Matteo and Sophie uncover what happened to her mother.

 Rooftoppers is a fantastic middle grade novel which made me laugh. There are peculiar moments and those heart beating happy ones too.

   The novel is written in third person narrative which is a change as I have recently realised that many books I read now are in first person. This could possibly be because many young teen books try to engage you with exactly how the characters are feeling. This means it leaves little to your imagination about how the character could be feeling. The way Katherine Rundell has written Rooftoppers engaged me in how Sophie was feeling but also gave me different perspectives on each character.  For instance, you get a feel for how Charles and Matteo were feeling or even what the city looked like but not from a biased perspective.

 I really enjoyed this novel and I believe it deserves to be a winner of the CILIP Carnegie. I hugely recommend Rooftoppers if you haven’t already read it. Many people dismiss middle grade novels as they are written for a young audience; they shouldn’t be ignored just because they are aimed at a younger audience. They are just as good as many young adult novels and this is most definitely one of those.

Publication Details: 2013, Faber and Faber, London, paper back.

Copy:  For review from publishers-CILIP Carnegie 2014