Reader Review – Rooftoppers by Katherine Rundell

Rooftoppers
Author: Katherine Rundell

[Warning – Minor Spoiler Alert]

“Possibly Katherine Rundell’s best book, a close competitor to The Explorer – it is written to perfection, with a complicated and interesting story. Sophie, a baby girl washed up to the shore on her first birthday, was found floating in a cello case by an eccentric and kind man named Charles Maxim. He raises her with a strange and unusual lifestyle, with not much money, but plenty of joy and wisdom. As Sophie grows up, she is convinced that her mother survived from the few valuable memories she recalls from the shipwreck. Everyone tells her she is wrong, that there is no hope, even Charles tells her that there is almost no possibility. She still investigates though, in her spare time. And then the social services arrive. They insist that Sophie is not being raised properly, and demand that Charles quits as a father. So the two of them hatch a plan; her cello case came from France, so that is where they head – to find Sophie’s mother. From then on, it’s a run from the police, and a series of interesting encounters with a young boy living on the rooftops. As the stakes are raised, the question presses – will Sophie find her mother? Or did she drown on the day of the shipwreck?
In my top ten books, I rate Rooftoppers six stars!”

JG, aged 12