Rooftoppers

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The two decide to run away to Paris in search of Sophie’s mother, who she insists is still alive. While there, Sophie meets a peculiar boy who lives on the rooftops who may just lead her to find her mother. Matteo and some other rooftop children help Sophie to break into the police files. They find out that all the ship's musicians were recorded as being men. However, one of the musicians, called George Green , looks very similar to Sophie and is wearing a woman's shirt in a photograph. Jamie Doward (26 February 2017). "The lure of tall buildings: A guide to the risky but lucrative world of 'rooftoppers' ". The Guardian . Retrieved 3 October 2018.

There are some odd parts where Sophie lies about where she is going at night to her guardian and he tells her some confusing stuff about it being okay to lie. It seemed odd and unnecessary that her caring guardian would let (I am guessing Sophie is an 8 or 9 yr old) out in the capital at night, all night. Your class will identify where the commas should go in the sentences and which sentences are examples of the four rules. The prose may seem at times a little condescending toward kids and preachy, but I must point out again that its intended audience is 10 years old kids, and not fifty-somethings. Adjectives like 'bouncy' , 'twirling', 'skipping'. 'dancing' and 'singing' are a good indicator for a happy story, yet the author is skillful enough to introduce in the text powerful critical comments about the way we treat orphans and the way we stifle imagination in young children. There were a few missteps that pulled me out of the story several times, but they all can be dismissed as grown-up foibles, so I decided to put them in spoilers, and not to detract from the overall positive impression this short story left.

Reading Skills - Rooftoppers - Chapter 2

Mother: Great story with spoonfuls of creamy dream-like prose. Loved most young Sophie and her adventures with the rag-tag friends who dwell on rooftops and trees, especially Matteo and the almost more-than-friendship introduced by Rundell...reminiscent of Secret Garden with maybe a dash of Heathcliff in hardscrabble Matteo, the lone wolf kid all haunted, passionate, and grim. (Jump, Sophie, jump. You might die, but maybe you won't. And here, here are my scars from the knife and no, I don't talk about it, like ever, but it messed me up. And yes, give me your ankles to hold and I'll dangle you over the edges of reason and rooftops.) It's about a spunky, intelligent girl called Sophie, who was found floating in a cello case in the English channel as a baby. The man who found her - Charles - decides immediately to do the only natural thing - raise and love this baby girl as if she was his own. We have created a range of questions that include questions linked to inference, retrieval, vocabulary, summarising, synthesis and more.

English Year 5 & Year 6​: Understand what they read by exploring the meaning of words in context; drawing inferences and justifying inferences with evidence; predicting what might happen from details stated and implied; summarising the main ideas drawn from more than one paragraph and identifying key details that support the main ideas; and identifying how language, structure and presentation contribute to meaning. See Faber authors in conversation and hear readings from their work at Faber Members events, literary festivals and at book shops across the UK. Rooftoppers started out brilliantly; the first chapters were full of whimsy and a sense of randomness that I completely fell in love with. The beginning of the story, which chronicles how our heroine, Sophie, is found as a baby floating in the ocean in a cello case and adopted by the kind-hearted scholar, Charles, was a pure delight. Tātad būs čells, Sofija un piedzīvojumu ceļojums Anglija - Parīze (Parīzes jumti un bērni no jumtu cilts). Sad, child, but not stupid. It is difficult to believe extraordinary things. It’s a talent you have, Sophie. Don’t lose it."It is difficult to believe extraordinary things when you're an adult. But children can, which is why Katherine Rundell's wonderfully fanciful book won both the Waterstone and Blue Peter prizes for children's literature when it came out in 2014. By the same token, it is difficult for an adult to review; we can celebrate the times we share a childlike delight, certainly, but how can we be sure that when it gets a little repetitious to us, it is not in fact drawing the child reader even deeper into its spell?Kas iepriecināja? - Neparasti labestīgi, gaiši un brīvību mīloši tēli, kuri vistiešākajā izpausmē dzīvo pēc saviem likumiem/nosacījumiem. Charles doesn’t think that it’s important for Sophie to behave like other young Victorian girls. He thinks it is more important for Sophie to be happy.

English Year 5 & Year 6​: Evaluate how authors use language, including figurative language, considering the impact on the reader. Rooftoppers reads very much like two separate stories. The London section, while vital to the rest of the book, feels just a bit contrived ... In contrast, the Parisian section is magical in the way that the best fairy tales are - combining elements of the fantastic and the grittily realistic into an irresistible alchemical brew... continued When they travel to France to explore the possibility that some of Sophie's relatives may be in Paris, Charles disappears from the storyline and is replaced by the rooftoppers, homeless orphans living on the rooftops to avoid detection. Sophie sets out to find her mother. It was the only living thing for miles. Just the baby, and some dining room chairs, and the tip of a ship disappearing into the ocean. There had been music in the dining hall, and it was music so loud and so good that nobody had noticed the water flooding in over the carpet. The violins went on sawing for some time after the screaming had begun. Sometimes the shriek of a passenger would duet with a high C.

Beyond the Book

Sophie has a strong sense of her own identity. Charles supports this, even when her preferences go against what Victorian society expected from a young girl.

Sophie doesn't tell Charles she's going on the roofs even though he told her to stay in her room. Recommended ages 10+ for violence, alcohol, and language.

Reader Reviews

When I was reading it and I was whisked away to Ms Rundell’s dreamlike Paris where the streets are still cobbled and the streetlights are being lit by hand, I couldn’t help but think of the film The Illusionist. Except Rooftoppers had a much happier and incredibly delightful ending. There is a wistful, old-fashioned charm to Katherine Rundell’s second book: her poetic language and imaginative approach set this book apart from many other adventure stories for this age group. Whimsical, beautifully-written and as carefully balanced as the tightrope Sophie learns to walk, Rooftoppers is a sensitive and emotionally-resonant novel with an uplifting message about the power of hope. Think of nighttime with a speaking voice. Or think how moonlight might talk, or think of ink, if ink had vocal cords. 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. His name was Charles Maxim, and he determined, as he held her in his large hands—at arm’s length, as he would a leaky flowerpot—that he would keep her.As the lady from the National Childcare Agency will often point out, Charles has little idea of how to bring up a female infant. But he is both imaginative and kind. Soon Sophie (for that's what he calls her) is enjoying the kind of upbringing any child would dream about, with lots of exciting things to explore and no silly rules about dressing like a little lady or not writing on the walls. Charles's idea of a perfect birthday treat is eating a tub of ice-cream on top of a coach-and-four galloping around Hyde Park in the rain. And he reads to her from Shakespeare and takes her to concerts, at one of which she hears a cello and falls in love. So he buys her one: