Common Sense Media Review
By Darienne Stewart
,
based on child development research. How do we rate?
Soaring, quirky adventure has unforgettable characters.
Parents Need to Know
Why Age 8+?
Any Positive Content?
Where to Read
What's the Story?
After a ship sinks in the English Channel, bookish bachelor Charles Maxim finds the last survivor: a 1-year-old girl floating in a cello case. He names her Sophie and brings her to his London home to raise her with love and plenty of Shakespeare. Miss Eliot of the National Childcare Agency visits weekly and is horrified by Sophie's tangled hair, boys' trousers, and meals served on books (Sophie tends to break plates). When Sophie is 12, she's to be sent to an orphanage. So Charles and Sophie follow a clue to hunt for her mother in Paris. Menaced by police, Sophie takes to the rooftops and encounters a secret and dangerous world where children live proudly and ably on their own, high above the pavement.
Is It Any Good?
ROOFTOPPERS is a captivating read packed with tiny delights. There's an astonishing scene wherein birds are fed atop a tightrope, Charles' dismissal of bureaucrats as "mustaches with idiots attached," ice cream enjoyed in the rain on the outside box of a horse-drawn carriage -- and that's just for starters. Author Katherine Rundell celebrates eccentric, resilient people who are happy to live on the margins of respectable society. Unorthodox people, of course, have unorthodox adventures, and Sophie's is a magical journey.
Rundell's writing is lyrical and clever -- sometimes a little too clever, as the creative metaphors and similes pile up to the point of distraction. But that's just a tiny quibble with this imaginative, soaring tale.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about the rooftoppers' means of survival: They trespass, steal, and fight with weapons. Also, Sophie and Charles intentionally break the law. Are they justified?
Rooftoppers, like many kids' novels, features a child searching for her parent. Can you think of other stories of abandoned children you've read or seen in movies?
Could this tale, which begins in the 1890s, take place in the modern era? How would modern technology change the story?
Book Details
- Author :
- Illustrator : Terry Fan
- Genre : Adventure
- Topics : Adventures
- Book type : Fiction
- Publisher : Simon & Schuster
- Publication date : September 24, 2013
- Publisher's recommended age(s) : 8 - 12
- Number of pages : 288
- Available on : Paperback, Nook, Audiobook (unabridged), Hardback, Apple Books, Kindle
- Award : ALA Best and Notable Books
- Last updated : October 1, 2025
Did we miss something on diversity?
Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by
Suggest an Update
Common Sense Media's unbiased ratings are created by expert reviewers and aren't influenced by the product's creators or by any of our funders, affiliates, or partners.
See how we rate