St. James C.E. Academy, Southam

Funnily enough, this is another story where something life-changing happens on the main
character’s 12th birthday. Al Chaudhury’s Dad has been dead for four years when he reappears in Al’s life. He sends him a letter which soon sends Al on a time-travelling journey to try to save his Dad’s life. Of course, you can’t start time-travelling without causing a few problems—especially when there’s a hamster called Alan Shearer involved. Al generally tries to stay out of trouble, but he has to do several things he never imagined he would do very quickly if he is to carry out his Dad’s instructions. Along the way, he has many adventures including escaping the police, dealing with a bully from 1984, working out how to save his Dad (more than once) and making sure that things aren’t changed so much that he won’t be born…

This is a book for older readers (probably Year 6 and above) as it tackles some difficult topics along the way. However, it is an exciting adventure story with some great characters in it (you can’t fail to love wise old Grandpa Byron). This was Ross Welford’s first book and it attracted a lot of attention, making it to many prize shortlists (including the Blue Peter shortlist in 2017, and Costa Children’s Book awards) and winning the Awesome Book award for 2017. If you like action adventure with a bit of an emotional twist and a dose of science-fiction, this could be one to try.

From the beginning, Rooftoppers is a mix of strange humour, adventure and changing emotions. It opens when baby Sophie is found floating in the sea in a cello case: she is wrapped in a piece of Beethoven music and is wearing a red ‘1’ birthday rosette. She is rescued by Charles Maxim, a fellow passenger, who loves books (especially Shakespeare) and is a very kind man, but, it seems, has very little idea how to look after children. Because Sophie was so young when the ship sank, nobody believes her when she insists she can remember her mother.

Charles and Sophie are regularly visited by a bossy inspector from the National Childcare Agency who is always telling Sophie and Charles what they are doing wrong. But Charles and Sophie don’t take any notice: Charles just loves Sophie and lets her be herself. When she is 9, she discovers she loves to hear the cello play and Charles buys her one to learn. It is too big to play in her bedroom so, of course, he lets her play it on the roof. Charles teaches Sophie to follow her dreams and ‘never to ignore the possible’—even if the possible is very unlikely.

Sophie’s life changes dramatically at the age of 12 when Charles is told he is unfit to look after her and she is to be sent to an orphanage. If he refuses, he will be sent to jail. Broken-hearted, they decide they cannot let this happen. Together, they escape to Paris and set off on an amazing adventure to try to solve the mystery of Sophie’s mother…