Tin by Padraig Kenny - Reviewed by Kelly McCaughrain

Padraig Kenny gives me serious cover envy (and I love my cover). Look at these! So beautiful. 

 

Pog is about to be released and I’m looking forward to it because I loved Tin, which came out last year and has been shortlisted for a truckload of awards.

Tin is a sweet, funny adventure about a group of mechanical children. Do I actually have to say any more?

Christopher is a ‘proper’ boy, with a real soul, and he works for a shady, incompetent engineer who manufactures the mechanical children who are Christopher’s best friends. As the engineer is a bit rubbish, all the mechanical children have things wrong with them, but as a team they manage to get through life all right, avoiding the scary government department that manages mechanicals and makes sure the strict rules around ‘ensoulment’ are not breached. 

But when a huge secret is revealed, the kids have to leave home to find out who Christopher really is and what it really means to be human.

Brilliant premise, brilliantly executed. The characters are real and endearing right from the start, and the ending made me cry (in work!). The fantasy world is just our world but with mechanical children. It’s set just after WWI, in fact, and that plays a role, though it doesn’t feel like a historical novel. The history and world building don’t take over the story, it's firmly character-based, which is the kind of book I love. 

It’s light and funny with a big warm heart and I’d really recommend it for upper MG / younger YA (or adults with any taste).

Kelly McCaughrain is the author of the YA novel Flying Tips for Flightless Birds. 

She blogs about Writing, Gardening and VW Campervanning at weewideworld.blogspot.co.uk 

@KMcCaughrain

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