Tick Tick goes the clock...
...In the Hobbit Library.
Hello and welcome back to the Hobbit Library! Ellieanarose, here! I hope that your year is going well so far. We are currently wrapped up in the delights of the Spring Festival but I needed a break, so I ended up back in the Hobbit Library, searching for a book to read that would fit this theme that the Big Folk call Steampunk. I remember Eowara telling us three Appleblossoms about a book called Cogheart, so I headed home to look it up to read.
Cogheart is the first in the The Cogheart Adventures Series by Peter Bunzl and focuses on 13-year-old Lily Hartman... no sorry... Granthan and the adventure she must go on after her father goes missing. Now, you may be wondering where this Steampunk comes into the story. Well, John, Lily's father, created things called Mechanicals, Mechs for short, and they are wound up each day. It also seems like airships are the way to travel.
I will admit the start of the book did confuse me, as it started with John and his fox Mech, Malkin, and some sort of crash. I will admit though that it did suck me in as I wanted to find out what happened to John and why he sent Malkin with a letter for the Mechanical fox to get to Lily.
Afterwards, I was introduced to Lily, who doesn't like the boarding school that she was attending. I cannot begin to imagine how Lily felt. Her mother died in an accident, one that Lily only just survived, her father was off on another trip, and she's at school after the housekeeper says that it might be best for Lily to attend school. She gets into trouble for something that was a pure accident really. I really did feel sorry for Lily at that moment, as she must have felt so alone in the world.
The loneliness only increases when news of her father's 'death' is brought to her by the housekeeper, Madame Verdigris, and Lily is taken home. Madame Verdigris begins to sell off the Mechs and soon Lily is left on her own. Enter Robert. He rescues Malkin from two men, Roach and Mould, and then helps Lily escape. This is when the adventure really begins.
After an altercation with Mould and Roach, Robert's father tragically dies and the two children escape and head to where the wreckage of John's ship, Dragonfly, is. There, they meet Anna Quinn and she helps the children escape in her airship, Ladybird. Lily is positive that her father is alive and doesn't give up trying to find him.
They head to Lily's godfather, Professor Silverfish, and that is when things get interesting. John is alive! Professor Silverfish reveals that he was meant to have the Cogheart, but there is no trace of it... or is there? I thought John had it in the box Lily carries with her throughout the story, but it's not. The answer to this is hidden in plain sight and I never realised it until I found out myself. I, in the usual amazing style, will not reveal how the story ends... it is happy though... that much I will say.
There is a chase to escape and I ended up reading the whole second half of the book in one go because I couldn't put it down. I tried but I had to pick it back up again because I had to know how it ended. I am so happy that there are more books in the series already out as I'm tempted to get the next three books in the series as well to find out what other adventures happen in this world. Go and read it if you can. I'm off to tell my sisters about it now.
Cissarose will be back next month. See you in a couple of months. I'll get her to tell you about the Spring Festival!
Lots of love,
Ellieanarose xxx