"Rooftoppers" is Exciting, Enchanting Youth Novel

Thu, 03/13/2014 - 12:00am by annevm

The opening line of Rooftoppers by Katherine Rundell, sets the scene: "On the morning of its first birthday, a baby was found floating in a cello case in the middle of the English Channel." The baby is Sophie, now an adolescent with a vague recollection that her mother was in the channel, too, waving for help after a shipwreck. Sophie's eccentric guardian, Charles, tells her it is almost impossible that her mother is still alive. But for Sophie and Charles, "almost impossible" leaves room for "still possible" and they believe that one should never ignore something that just might be possible.

Because Sophie is a young lady in the care of a single man (Charles), British welfare officials begin pursuing them. The two flee to Paris. With only the address of the maker of her mother's cello, Sophie launches a search for her mom. She is aided by young Matteo and the Rooftoppers, a band of children living in hidden spaces above Paris. Philip Pullman, author of the wonderful series His Dark Materials, praises Rooftoppers as "the work of a writer with an utterly distinctive voice and a wild imagination." I found the book absorbing and delightful.