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dreaj 's review for:
Rooftoppers
by Katherine Rundell
Read for 52 Book Club Challenge 2023 #46 Script font on the spine
What a beautiful book! Quirky, funny, heartwarming - an instant children's classic. Sophie is rescued as a baby from a shipwreck (in a cello case!) by the unconventional Charles but never stops believing that her mother is alive. On the run from the authorities, she meets Matteo, a rooftopper, and together they go "mother-hunting" across the rooftops of Paris...
Things to love...
The descriptions:
"Think of night-time with a speaking voice. Or think of how moonlight might talk, or think of ink, if ink had vocal chords. Give those things a narrow aristocratic face with hooked eyebrows, and long arms and legs, and that is what the baby saw as she was lifted out of her cello case and up into safety.'
The quirky, loveable characters:
"Charles set the baby on his knee, handed her the apple, and began to read out loud to her from A Midsummer Night's Dream. It was not, perhaps, the perfect way to begin a new life, but it showed potential."
The heartwarming philosophy:
"Almost impossible means still possible...You always say, never ignore a possible."
The wish-fulfilment adventure:
"Then Sophie turned and ran, as swift as she dared, dressed only in her pants and with her shoes in her mouth and her arms out for balance, back along the slate, back along the tip-tops of the city, over the heads of a hundred dreaming Frenchman, and back to bed."
The quotable quotes:
"'Your powers of observation are formidable,' said Charles. 'You are a credit to your optician'"
Highly recommended!
What a beautiful book! Quirky, funny, heartwarming - an instant children's classic. Sophie is rescued as a baby from a shipwreck (in a cello case!) by the unconventional Charles but never stops believing that her mother is alive. On the run from the authorities, she meets Matteo, a rooftopper, and together they go "mother-hunting" across the rooftops of Paris...
Things to love...
The descriptions:
"Think of night-time with a speaking voice. Or think of how moonlight might talk, or think of ink, if ink had vocal chords. Give those things a narrow aristocratic face with hooked eyebrows, and long arms and legs, and that is what the baby saw as she was lifted out of her cello case and up into safety.'
The quirky, loveable characters:
"Charles set the baby on his knee, handed her the apple, and began to read out loud to her from A Midsummer Night's Dream. It was not, perhaps, the perfect way to begin a new life, but it showed potential."
The heartwarming philosophy:
"Almost impossible means still possible...You always say, never ignore a possible."
The wish-fulfilment adventure:
"Then Sophie turned and ran, as swift as she dared, dressed only in her pants and with her shoes in her mouth and her arms out for balance, back along the slate, back along the tip-tops of the city, over the heads of a hundred dreaming Frenchman, and back to bed."
The quotable quotes:
"'Your powers of observation are formidable,' said Charles. 'You are a credit to your optician'"
Highly recommended!