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 a professionally trained actress and Executive Head teacher based in South East London. Her keen passion is the use of 'Rehearsal Room Pedagogy' as both a medium to create a constructivist approach to learning for children and professionals.