Rooftoppers, Katherine Rundell
Adventure
First line: On the morning of its first birthday, a baby was found floating in a cello case in the middle of the English Channel.
Booktalk: On Sophie’s first birthday, she is found floating in the English Channel, tucked into a cello case: a victim of the sinking of the Queen Mary. She is rescued by a tall strange man named Charles, who adopts her and takes her home to live a thoroughly unconventional life in London. Charles’s shirts are 50% silk, 50% hole, and he lets Sophie have the run of the house and do as she pleases. She doesn’t go to school, but she still learns a lot, because Charles is an educated man and a great reader.
But as wonderful as Charles is, he cannot bring her the thing she wants most: her mother. Sophie is convinced that her mother survived the sinking of the queen Mary, and she is determined to find her. When social services decides to take Sophie away from Charles, they take action. Both of them travel to Paris, where the search for Sophie’s mother begins in earnest. They brave corrupt policemen and street gangs to find out her mother’s identity. But it is not until Sophie meets the rooftoppers – children who live on the rooftops of Paris, jumping and climbing at the top of the city as though it were as easy as walking – that she finally learns how to find her mother.
Similar titles: The Boundless (Kenneth Oppel); West of the Moon (Margi Preus)