The Monsters of Rookhaven by Pádraig Kenny - Reviewed by Kelly McCaughrain

I was already a fan of Pádraig Kenny, I loved his first two MG novels, Tin and Pog, so I was really looking forward to his third. I was lucky enough to get hold of a proof of The Monsters of Rookhaven, and it didn’t disappoint. 

Like his first two, this book is full of heart. Just as Tin asked what it really means to be human, The Monsters of Rookhaven asks, who are the true monsters in this world?

(It's also continued Kenny's tradition of having the BEST covers ever.)

  

So beautiful!

Mirabelle knows she is a monster. She lives at Rookhaven house with all her monster relatives, a thin veil of ‘glamour’ separating them from the human world. But who is the glamour meant to be protecting? And what happens when two orphaned humans stumble right through it? 

The Monsters of Rookhaven is a wartime-fantasy-haunted-house-mystery-MG set a Shirley Jackson-esque village. What more could you actually want? It’s got literally everything in there, including some truly great characters (he managed to make a woman made entirely of spiders endearing. How?)

The Monsters of Rookhaven is out on 17^th September. I suggest you go preorder a copy for yourself (and the kids if you must) right now!

Kelly McCaughrain is the author of the Children's Books Ireland Book of the Year,

Flying Tips for Flightless Birds. 

She is the Children's Writing Fellow for Northern Ireland #CWFNI

She also blogs at The Blank Page

@KMcCaughrain

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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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