I’ve loved everything I’ve read of Pádraig’s ever since Tin and Round Rob.

The world has died and Father and Jen are travelling to find Tranquility Lake, an ideal spot to stop and set up ‘home’, but there are secrets being kept and one of those is what actually happened at the end of the world.

Father is a mek, but one that looks like a human and travels with Jen who was found by Father alone in a crib and has raised her along with the help of a book on parenting.

This was a great read, I was certainly begrudging having to pause reading it to return to the shop floor and was so looking forward to my breaks and lunch today to find out where this journey was going.

I love how Pádraig can develop such an exploration about the human condition in such a short tale, and usually the most human person in the story is not the one born human. There is a lot about trust and doing things for ‘the best’, but it also talks about a lot of our current concerns with the mega-rich, the environment, and AI.

A great adventure with great characters that pluck at your heartstrings, if you loved Tin you will love this! and if you haven’t read Tin yet, why not?

I received this from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Excellent dystopia for young readers, so much heart.

Fans of the Wild Robot series (and film) will see similarities here, though this story is set in a post-human-apocalypse world rather than among today's tech-heavy society.

We follow Jen and Father, scavenging and travelling across the country, almost alone following a Flood that brought humans and machines down - both of which were in the majority connected by an information Hive that the waters destroyed.

Seeking refuge and peace, we learn that Father is not actually a biological relation of Jen's, having rescued her as an infant - and is in fact not biological at all. Yet John defends and cares for his 'daughter' with parenting guides and logic. Coming across a small, self-sufficient human settlement, John sees he may be a liability to Jen, in a world where machines/AI are feared for what they did to humans in the past.

What a story! With memories of The Walking Dead and The Wild Robot in my head, this was a perfectly-pitched junior version, with the feel of a dystopia inside the shell of a child-friendly plot. Though it doesn't go for easy answers. It asks big questions and doesn't let readers off easily with where it takes them.

It's heartfelt, moving and very much discussion-worthy. And filmable. And yes, exciting. Loved it.

For ages 8-13.

With thanks to Netgalley for providing a sample reading copy.

Padraig Kenny is one of my go to authors. I have no idea how he does it but once I started this, I couldn’t put it down. Read it in one go. His ability to create relatable characters that make us think and question as well as cheer them on is wonderful. He takes on big themes that are so relevant today (technology taking over, greedy, rich, power hungry businessmen, loss) and turns them into stories that are accessible for children and will no doubt be the stimulus for many conversations around the issues.

Thank you for letting me preview this book. I have been a fan of the author since "The Monsters of Rookhaven". His work is always full of dichotomous characters -- a dichotomy that is not inherent in the characters, but rather a dichotomy that is endowed on the characters through our own perspectives which are in turn taught by various social conventions and commonly accepted perspectives. Reading his books is often like walking into one of those houses of mirrors in fairgrounds; you will never know which one is a distorted reflection and which one is the real self.

This book is written with surprisingly simple vocabulary and sentence structures, making it accessible to younger children; or maybe it is a calculated simplicity to create a nostalgic mirage that we adult readers would crave and image that it has once truly existed even when it has never existed.

This is surely going to be a book that I will use in one of my courses in the future, and hopefully we will be honoured once again to meet Padraig online again.

And one little postscript: Why did the chicken to cross the road? Because the slaughterhouse is on the other side and its chicks are on the side it left behind. Should we humans cross the road too to save what is truly worth salvaging? And I am still crying as I write this review.

Thank you for such a touching and thought-provoking book.

With the arrival of January, many readers’ thoughts have switched from their Best of 2024 titles to those coming out in 2025 and I am no exception. Having spent the festive season catching up on some of the many books that have been sitting on my shelf for some time, I found myself checking out NetGalley to see if anything new had been added and could not have been more thrilled when I found this had popped up.

A huge fan of Pádraig Kenny’s writing, this is a read that I was so confident of enjoying that I downloaded it immediately and launched straight in. Another incredible middle grade, in common with the author’s last title Stitch, this is a story that takes a good hard look at what it is to be human but one that, unlike Stitch, explores the role of AI and a terrible possible outcome of our increasing reliance on technology.

Like all children, Jen is curious about the world around her but in her case, she is particularly interested in how the world ended – something that Father has told her about many, many times. As they head towards the old city that stands in front of them in search of food and other supplies, Jen listens carefully as Father once again explains to her how humans slowly destroyed the world – initially its habitats and ultimately many of their own kind in the Flood.

Reaching the city, Jen is keen to search the long-empty shelves of its supermarkets and excited to visit its libraries, in the hopes of nourishing her mind as well as her body. Once they have seen all that there is for them to see, and have failed to add to their meagre supplies, they set out again – passing the wreckage of various robots on their way. After stopping for the night in a nearby forest, Jen and Father take a detour from their intended path to investigate some lights they have seen, with Father warning Jen that the lights might well mean other people, who may not be friendly.

When the inevitable happens, Jen is beyond happy to discover that the small community they have stumbled across appears to be welcoming and longs to join them. But with Father in fact an autonomous robot, whose appearance mimics that of a human, will the two of them be able to keep the truth of his existence a secret from their new, technophobic friends? And if they can’t, what will the outcome be for both of them?

While Jen and Father are very obviously not biologically related to one another, the parent-child bond between the two of them could not be closer. He is driven by his programming, which in theory leaves him free of emotions, and is reliant on a book on childcare that he has found to be his guide in looking after his charge but clearly feels something towards Jen, even if he is unable to recognise it for what it is. She, on the other hand, has had very little contact with other humans since being found and rescued as a baby but has grown up to respect and love the robot dearly.

When they come across the small group of survivors, who appear to offer everything that Jen has longed for, she is faced with an impossible choice: the community or Father but – of course – being human, not only wants both but needs them both too. This vision of a dystopian future where humankind’s ever-increasing thirst for technological advancement has proved to be its complete undoing is one that is utterly credible. Very few of us have been able to resist the many attractions of smartphones and AI is increasingly present in all of our lives, with significant numbers of us blissfully unaware of its increasing influence – something that I find quite terrifying. For young readers, who are completely accepting of all that the digital age has brought and continues to bring, this is not just a story about what it is to be human and what constitutes a family, but a really thought-provoking exploration of just how far we as the planet’s dominant species should go in our quest for a better life.

In addition to the book’s short length (240 pages), artist Steve McCarthy’s glorious cover and gorgeous chapter heading illustrations make this an enormously tempting read for those in Year 4 upwards – one that I really enjoyed and that young readers will too – whether as a solo read, at bedtime or in class, where I’m sure that there will be lots of discussions arising from it.

I am hugely indebted to both publisher Walker Books and to NetGalley for my advance, virtual read of this title. After publishes 6th March.