Comment résister à une telle couverture ? Elle est juste somptueuse ! Tout comme le résumé qui donne très envie. J’avais hâte de me plonger dans cet univers aux allures de fiction steampunk, mais pour les plus jeunes. D’ailleurs, le roman s’adresse à des enfants et peut être lu à partir de 10 ans. Toutefois, les adultes y trouveront également leur compte s’ils ont encore une âme d’enfant 😉
Si j’ai eu un peu de mal au tout début, dès que l’action démarre, tout s’enchaîne et impossible de reposer ce livre ! La plume de Pádraig Kenny est entraînante, mais également très émouvante avec des personnages qui ont su me toucher. Bravo ! Ma chronique : https://songedunenuitdete.com/2019/04/06/les-orphelins-de-metal-de-padraig-kenny/

I'm not really a fan of this book. For me it was just too young for me.

The main characters are a group of mechanicals; Christopher, Jack, round Rob, Manda and Gripper. When Christopher goes missing the rest go off on an adventure to find him. I also thought it might be more to do with the wizard of Oz due to the title and cover picture but instead it was more futuristic (mechanical people).

There few secondary characters because there are so many main characters.

The storyline is OK but it was aimed at a much younger audience so it wasn't all that exciting for me to read. The pacing is good but again it was not so exciting for me to read.

2 stars a bit to young and boring for me.

This was a strange one- parts of it felt really complex (some of the vocab and themes) but other parts felt simplistic enough to share with reluctant year 5 readers. I am going to share it with a few particular readers in my class who like the robot themes from it and see how it goes. I didn't love it, but it wasn't my kind of story.

A fast-paced story centring around Christopher, a boy who lives with mechanicals - sentient robots, essentially.

When Christopher finds out something shocking about his past, he and his friends set off to discover the truth, leading to whirlwind encounters with deranged inventors and power-hungry control freaks.

The language here is rich and absorbing, every line used to develop each character fully and further storylines to such an extent that they could have their own stories. Round Rob was a particular favourite of mine, but Cormier grew on me too as his own backstory was revealed.

Ace stuff.

Tin is a set in an alternate England between the two wars. It is a time of machines built by the greatest engineers of the age. Absalom is not one of the greatest engineers even though he does like to brag. He works out of a scrap yard and tries to get work for his mechanicals: Jack, Rob, Amanda and Gripper. He is aided by Estelle who makes skin and Christopher his adoptee. When an accident reveals Christopher is not actually "proper" but an ensouled mechanical things go sideways fast. The agency comes and takes him away and the rest of the mechanicals set off to find a way to get him back. They find Philip Cormier, the premier engineer who retired after an accident.

Turns out Christopher was not stolen by the Agency but by Richard Blake the son of an engineer who was killed in the same accident Cormier was involved in. Blake is determined to finish the work his father started no matter the cost. And he is a bit crazy! They must find Blake and stop him before he completely destroys everything.

I loved this book way more than I thought I would. The cover kind of gave me a Wizard of Oz vibe and there is a bit of that in the story. I liked the steampunk and the different kinds of mechanicals. I was horrified at how truly evil Blake turned out to be. It went way further than I expected. The murder of one of the mechanicals was also so heartbreaking and horrifying that I was a bit taken aback. The only thing I didn't think made sense was that the engineering was controlled by glyphs that you could just draw in the air. It was a bit to magical for how I imagined the world to be.

A strong cast of characters all yearning to be "proper," or, as Pinocchio would say, "real." It's an exciting rescue quest set in a world of "mechanicals," metal creations brought to life by magical glyphs. There are rules governing their essence and creation, but the protagonists all begin in the possession of a black market engineer who skirts the law, and their adventure sees them caught between the world's preeminent pioneer engineers who are all about pushing boundaries. So all sorts of states of existence seem possible, and in the background of the action are thoughts about what makes someone a person. I loved this little band of misfit not-quite-robots and couldn't help cheering them on. A rousing tale.

I'd give this 4.5 stars. I read it for a read aloud for my fifth grade class, but I think I was more into the book than they were.

3.5 stars. One of this year's Red Dot books. Good amount of action inbetween the quest scenes. I feel that the "characters" were never really fully developed, but rather pastiches of 'types'. I would have liked to have Estelle have more of a role instead of just the smoldering resentful female. The whole book I felt that it had been written with transferring to a screen play in mind and that was somewhat disconcerting.
A few interesting 'big themes' about what it is to be human, what it is to have a soul etc. Will appeal to a broad range of students, including those who like "war" or the idea of potential war.

Follow the ragtag band of mechanicals as they search for Christopher, who has been abducted by someone who wants to discover his deepest secrets.

Throughout this gripping adventure, set in an England of alternative 1930s where mechanicals (robots) are common, there is a huge nod to ‘The Wizard of Oz’, a curmodgeonly wizard, evil witch, someone longing for home, and a ragtag band of friends who are on their own journeys of discovery.

Pádraig has developed a wonderfully believable world where Pinocchio was burnt on a bonfire through fear, but Gepetto (Runcible) kept developing his creations, perfecting them, but there was always fear. Therefore a set of rules were developed to make the mechanicals acceptable.

The pace is perfect and keeps you on the edge of your seat throughout, always one step ahead of you keeping you wanting more. This is accompanied by some of the best described locations ever, some of which are very dark indeed.

It feels like the start of a new fictional universe which I would be more than happy to explore further.

I will just leave with one last thing, Round Rob.

SLJ RTC