What does it take to be human? What is the difference between humans and robots? What does it mean to have a soul? In this debut novel by author Padraig Kenny, titled Tin, these questions are explored along with what it means to love, the value of friendship, and the importance of finding out who you really are. This novel is a steam punk fantasy that takes place in Britain right after World War I, where robots play a major role in the world. The novel also has elements of Wizard of Oz (look at the cover) and Pinocchio–all with an interesting twist.

Cleverly written and very fast-paced, Tin is a page-turner that follows a band of misfits (again a nod to Oz) on a quest to help a friend. Engineers have developed robots that are all but human and throughout the novel it is murky as to which is which, making their adventure all the more exciting. As those that one would least expect show empathy and love, one questions where those emotions stem from and if that is what makes us human. Padraig does a brilliant job getting the reader to think and bringing a world made and dominated by metal to life.

This book was sent to Compass Book Ratings for review by Scholastic

Content Analysis:

Profanity/Language:  1 religious exclamation; 2 mild obscenities. 

Violence/Gore:  (Note:  As many of the characters are robots posing as humans, I tallied only the violence that was done when the nature of the robot appeared to be human and not when it was machine against machine or when a robot was acting violently towards humans.)

One paragraph scene describing a character getting hit by a car with injuries; Character forcefully dragged away; Person tasers a human like robot; Characters attacked by a robot (2 different accounts); Character has a flash back about the fire that he thinks killed his parents; Character grabbed and forced back into a room; Character forcefully makes his point by violently destroying another robot; Character tasers another person (4 different accounts); Character forcefully put and detained in a chair; One character tries to attack another with a wrench; Characters attacked by robotic spiders; One character attacks another on a platform and in the process falls to his death.

Sex/Nudity:  None

Mature Subject Matter:

Death.

Alcohol / Drug Use:

None