Tin

Tin gets under your skin… well if you’re a ‘proper’ sentient human. It’s a brilliant arrangement by Pádraig Kenny, through which children and teachers can question what it means to be human.

Contrasting worlds collide throughout – ornate historical and modern mechanical, human and inhuman, friendship and malevolence, macabre and comforting.

There is also a sense of social injustice creeping through an ironic exploration of modernisation reviving almost a Dickensian social structure.

Not only that, in this age of technology rapidly replacing humans in so many ways, this is a fictional island where children and adults can escape to explore what this means for the future of humankind. Devotion, betrayal and subterfuge are rife making for a gripping and, at moments, breath-taking story.

Such an exciting book for teachers to use on so many levels! Tin is a must for school libraries and every upper junior classroom reading area along with Pog, as well as a core text for teachers to plan an entire term of learning around. I know we will be! I cannot recommend this book enough.

You can read a review of Kenny’s latest novel The Monsters of Rookhaven.

This review was written by Lucy Timmons

Lucy Timmons is an Executive Coach and Education Consultant specialising in high-quality drama learning. She has 20 years experience as an educator and school leader up to and including Executive Head teacher level. Based in South East London, her keen passion is combining her training and work as a professional actor with her skills as an educator to use 'Rehearsal Room Pedagogy' as both a medium to create a constructivist approach to learning for children and professionals.