Rooftoppers
‘A writer with an utterly distinctive voice and a wild imagination’ - Philip Pullman
WINNER OF THE WATERSTONE'S CHILDREN'S BOOK PRIZE
A tale of wild hope and thrilling adventure on the rooftops of Paris, Rooftoppers is a multi-award-winning modern classic from internationally bestselling author Katherine Rundell
Everyone tells Sophie that she was orphaned in a shipwreck – found floating in a cello case on the English Channel on her first birthday. But Sophie is convinced her mother also survived.
When the Welfare Agency threatens to separate her from her guardian and send her to an orphanage, Sophie takes matters into her own hands, starting with the only clue she has – the address of a cello-maker in Paris. On the run from the authorities, Sophie finds Matteo and his network of rooftoppers – urchins who walk tightropes and live in the sky. In a race across the rooftops of Paris, will they be able to find her mother before it's too late?
Hopeful, inspiring and thrilling in equal measure, this is a classic adventure story about pursuing your dreams and never ignoring a possible.
'I enjoyed it tremendously ... The next time I go to Paris I will be looking up at the rooftops' - Jacqueline Wilson
Get ready to go on an unforgettable with Katherine Rundell…
Katherine Rundell is a bestselling author whose novels for children include Rooftoppers, The Wolf Wilder, The Explorer and The Good Thieves. She has won the Costa Children’s Book Award, the Blue Peter Book Award and the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize, amongst many others. She was a 2021 World Book Day author and has also published two picture books for children and three non-fiction books for adults, including Super-Infinite: The Transformations of John Donne, winner of the 2022 Baillie Gifford Prize, and The Golden Mole and Other Living Treasure, shortlisted for the 2022 Waterstones Book of the Year. Her books have sold millions of copies worldwide.
Katherine spent her childhood in Africa and Europe before taking her degree at the University of Oxford and becoming a Fellow of All Souls College. As well as writing, she studies Renaissance literature and occasionally goes climbing on the rooftops late at night.
Marie-Alice Harel is a French illustrator based in Edinburgh, Scotland. She teaches illustration at the Edinburgh Drawing School and was the winner of the 2019 Book Illustration Competition.