Winner of the Waterstones Children's Book Prize | Winner of the Blue Peter Book Award
Shortlisted for the CILIP Carnegie Medal | From the winner of the Costa Children's Book Prize
'A writer with an utterly distinctive voice and a wild imagination' - Philip Pullman
'Read everything she writes' - Daily Mail
Everyone tells Sophie that she was orphaned in a shipwreck - found floating in a cello case on the English Channel on her first birthday. But Sophie is convinced her mother also survived.
When the Welfare Agency threatens to separate her from her guardian and send her to an orphanage, Sophie takes matters into her own hands, starting with the only clue she has - the address of a cello-maker in Paris. On the run from the authorities, Sophie finds Matteo and his network of rooftoppers - urchins who walk tightropes and live in the sky. In a race across the rooftops of Paris, will they be able to find her mother before it's too late?
Hopeful, inspiring and thrilling in equal measure, this is a classic adventure story about pursuing your dreams and never ignoring a possible.