Episode 65 - Heartstrings (Rooftoppers and The Sad Story of Veronica Who Played the Violin) with Ria Ashcroft

This week, our books are linked by instruments from the strings section of the orchestra, and the way their music makes us feel.

Special guest Ria suggested our chapter book. It's Rooftoppers by Katherine Rundell! Sophie was found floating in a cello case as a one year old baby after a terrible shipwreck. For the next decade of her life, she was cared for by the strange and kindly man who found her: Charles Maxim. After the Victorian social services decide he isn't a suitable guardian for her after all, Sophie and Charles flee to Paris, there to seek out the mysterious owner of Sophie's cello case, her mother. The French police are less than helpful, but Sophie falls in with Matteo, a boy who lives on the rooftops of Paris, who helps her to continue her search from above.

Our picture book is the one that started the whole podcast off, the story that Nina told Matt in the pub on the last day of 2019. It's The Sad Story of Veronica, Who Played the Violin, by the inimitable David McKee. Veronica was an ordinary girl who played the violin. At first she was very bad. But she practiced loads? She was determined like that. Gradually, she became very good. So good that she was signed by a music man who made her music into records that sold and were played all around the world. Veronica becomes a superstar, touring the world. But she grows bored of all that. Really, she wants to go and see the animals in the jungle. What happens when a talent like Veronica walks into a clearing to encounter a lion, a leopard and a tiger? Listen in to find out!

You can find our more about Ria and her show here

And the BBC bitesize study guide to Rooftoppers is here

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