Rooftoppers

Rooftoppers is a lyrical middle-grade adventure about Sophie, a girl rescued as a baby from a shipwreck and raised by the unconventional Charles Maxim. When officials threaten to send Sophie to an orphanage, she travels to Paris to follow the one clue she has about her missing mother: the address of a cello maker. There, she discovers Matteo and a secret community of children living above the city’s streets and chimneys. Blending mystery, friendship, courage, music, and a magical vision of Paris, the novel celebrates hope and the refusal to accept that “almost impossible” means impossible. The book won the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize and the Blue Peter Book Award for Best Story.