Rooftoppers

Rooftoppers by Katharine Rundell           277 pages

Charles found Sophie when she was just a baby, floating in a cello case after a shipwreck.  Charles decided to keep Sophie, which the National Childcare Agency, represented by Miss Eliot, thought was appalling.  But, when Sophie was a young girl, they could find nothing technically wrong with his child care methods, and were forced to let them stay together.  Sophie was content in her home with Charles, who allowed her to wear pants instead of skirts and to make notes and draw pictures on the walls and to learn to play cello, which was something that only men usually did.  However, when Sophie turned 12, the Agency decided that, because she was becoming a young woman, Sophie must be removed from a home where there were no female caregivers and go to live in an orphanage.  On the basis of a small clue, Sophie and Charles decide to go to Paris to search for Sophie’s mother, whom Sophie believes survived the shipwreck, to try to prevent her going to an orphanage and in Paris, Sophie has extraordinary adventures.  This was a really good historical adventure story that a lot of older kids would probably like.