There was a rooftopping "craze" in Russia around 2017. [10] Known rooftoppers [ edit ] Mustang Wanted hanging on a steel beam I think I struggled to understand what the story was about - whether it was one of conservation or one of voyage and return. The concept itself was wonderful and I have no doubt that children will love getting lost in the jungle with Fred, Lila, Max and Con but I just couldn't connected with the characters themselves and wanted to - characters are what Rundell excels at. a highly improbable traverse on a tightrope between buildings, without any training, described as 'a safer option'. This Reading Skills resource contains a range of questions about chapter 2 from ‘Rooftoppers’ by Katherine Rundell. The questions are organised into content domains to allow a focus on one or more specific skills, and this resource also includes questions for more in-depth written answer practice. Here is a story that can be enjoyed by children and adults alike. It is the stuff of dreams and it is delightful.

As she grows older, Sophie begins to question whether her mother is alive, and if not, why she hasn't come to find her. Charles always says: "Never ignore a possible," and it is with these words that Sophie persuades him to take her to Paris in search of her mother. Sophie and Charles are also on the run from the authorities, after Charles is declared an unfit guardian for a "young lady". When in Paris, Sophie meets Matteo, a strange and lonely boy who lives on the rooftops to avoid the orphanages. At night, Sophie climbs from her hotel room and joins him to roam the rooftops of Paris on a hunt for her mother. total dismissal of the numerous wide Paris boulevards that make rooftop crossing an unlikely proposition over long distances, like from Notre Dame to Gare du Nord Rooftoppers reads very much like two separate stories. The London section, while vital to the rest of the book, feels just a bit contrived. The plot point about the National Childcare Agency hot on Charles and Sophie's heels feels like an excuse to go to Paris, reducing Sophie's early childhood to a way station between being rescued and going to Paris. Contrived though it may be, it is still whimsical – Charles' enthusiastic encouragement of Sophie's tree-climbing habit is one example of the book's fanciful style, as is his aphorism to "never ignore a possible." Many people have died or been injured while rooftopping due to falling from a height. [2] [3] Details [ edit ]

Summary

It's true that this is a children's book, but I think readers of all ages will be able to enjoy it. The setting is in England and France and the descriptions of the cities are gorgeous—French pastry shops, parks, bridges, and streets. Whimsical, beautifully written and as carefully balanced as the tightrope Sophie learns to walk, Rooftoppers is a sensitive and emotionally resonant novel with an uplifting message about the power of hope * BookTrust *

When they travel to France to explore the possibility that some of Sophie's relatives may be in Paris, Charles disappears from the storyline and is replaced by the rooftoppers, homeless orphans living on the rooftops to avoid detection. Sophie sets out to find her mother.Ben Westcott and Serenitie Wang (14 December 2017). "Who is to blame for Chinese rooftopper's dramatic death?". CNN . Retrieved 2020-07-14. 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. I meant, she knows the things which are important. Not all of them, of course; she is still a child. But many." Rooftoppers, by Katherine Rundell, set in the 19th century, begins after the sinking of a transatlantic ocean liner. A baby girl is found floating alone in a cello case. A man pulls her from the water. He is Charles Maxim, an eccentric scholar, who adopts the girl and names her Sophie. Precocious Sophie grows up in London as Charles's ward. She enters her adolescence polite, good-hearted, bookish and as eccentric as Charles. She spends her time reading books, climbing trees, and wearing outlandish clothing. Sophie and Charles seem perfectly united, but they diverge on one big issue: Sophie's mother. Charles believes that she was a passenger on the ship who died during its sinking. Sophie, however, is determined that not only did her mother not die, but she was a cellist in the ship's orchestra. Sophie pines for her mother, and determines to find her one day, even in the face of Charles's (and the world's) insistence that she is not alive and thus, cannot be found.

Mustang Wanted, real name Pavlo Ushivets, a Ukrainian rooftopper who has performed climbs and stunts around the world. In August 2014, during the War in Donbass, he climbed the spire of Kotelnicheskaya Embankment Building in Moscow, Russia and painted the yellow star on the top of the spire in blue to symbolize the colors of the Ukrainian flag. He was later prosecuted in absentia in Russia for vandalism, and also awarded in Ukraine. [11] [12] [13] [14] Mother: Great story with spoonfuls of creamy dream-like prose. Loved most young Sophie and her adventures with the rag-tag friends who dwell on rooftops and trees, especially Matteo and the almost more-than-friendship introduced by Rundell...reminiscent of Secret Garden with maybe a dash of Heathcliff in hardscrabble Matteo, the lone wolf kid all haunted, passionate, and grim. (Jump, Sophie, jump. You might die, but maybe you won't. And here, here are my scars from the knife and no, I don't talk about it, like ever, but it messed me up. And yes, give me your ankles to hold and I'll dangle you over the edges of reason and rooftops.) Sophie was the most charming, adorable, and spirited twelve-year-old and Charles was her eccentric and loving guardian who had an extremely odd but wonderful way of taking care of her. He filled her mind with the knowledge of words since she was young, let her wear pants, and encouraged her to play her cello on the rooftops. 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. Jen gave me this lovely book for Christmas, and it was the perfect way to start off the reading year. You're likely to hear the 'timeless children's book' descriptor a lot, and with good reason. It's timeless in the sense that it's a non-specified date in the past (early 1900s? Later 1800s?) when women were not cellists and were not supposed to wear trousers, but when it also feels perfectly right for a delightful man like Charles to rescue a baby, take her home and raise her, without bothering either of them with stupid things like school. It's also timeless in that same way because it could be a Noel Streatfield if he got in a Nanny to help out.She knows how to read, and how to draw. She knows the difference between a tortoise and a turtle. She knows one tree from another, and how to climb them. Only this morning she was telling me what is the collective noun for toads." Oddly, I had a really hard time getting into this one. It's right up my alley, so I'm not sure exactly why that was. My best guess is that this book read just like watching a movie. You could see every move people made, and hear what they said, and experience what they saw...but it didn't have the depth that I expect in a book. Yes, even a middle-grade book. 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. Embrace possibility and let Sophie’s music take you to the rooftops of Paris. It is about hope and belief, about following your inner voice, listening to your senses and letting the music play on, play on, play on. All wrapped up in luscious, chocolaty prose.

Finally, it's absolutely unbelievable. Yet another reason it bothered me but probably won't bother elementary readers. The baby was found wrapped for warmth in the musical score of a Beethoven symphony. It had drifted almost a mile from the ship, and was the last to be rescued. The man who lifted it into the rescue boat was a fellow passenger, and a scholar. It is a scholar’s job to notice things. He noticed that it was a girl, with hair the color of lightning, and the smile of a shy person. There are some odd parts where Sophie lies about where she is going at night to her guardian and he tells her some confusing stuff about it being okay to lie. It seemed odd and unnecessary that her caring guardian would let (I am guessing Sophie is an 8 or 9 yr old) out in the capital at night, all night.

Beyond the Book

Sophie and Charles did not live neatly, but neatness, Sophie thought, was not necessary for happiness.” After the sinking of the Victorian liner, Queen Mary, a baby girl with "hair the colour of lightning" is found floating in a cello case in the middle of the Channel. Her rescuer, the eccentric scholar Charles Maxim, names her Sophie, takes her home to London and brings her up – in defiance of the National Childcare Agency – to be as eccentric as he is. She wears homemade, brightly coloured trousers, and lives on chips, fish in tins, cheese and, occasionally, whisky. When inspectors from the NCA observe that she looks a little pale, Charles explains that she is "cut from the stuff of the moon".