Cogheart by Peter Bunzl

From the first page Peter Bunzl creates his alternate (Steampunk) world. Take at look at these text fragments:

"the silver airship"
"clockwork innards"
"the stench of burning has filled the fight deck"
"It's at least a day's journey from here, have you enough clicks?"

Clicks?  Wait a minute John Hartman is talking to a fox - isn't that surprising enough? Now we discover this fox is clockwork.

"Take your winder anyway.' John produced a tarnished key on a chain and hung it round the fox's neck, next to the pouch. 'Though heaven knows who'll wind you if I'm not here."

Malkin, the fox is now on the run. This was one of my favourite parts of this story. Malkin is carrying a message for John's daughter, Lily. This message is so urgent I think I almost held my breath through the first 160 pages of this book. Then tragedy strikes. Maklin is shot. He survives but the letter is badly damaged and almost impossible to read. Lily thinks her father is dead, she thinks Professor Silverfish can help her, and she knows she must hurry because some very evil men want to get their hands on her father's invention. Thank goodness she has two wonderful friends and of course Malkin to help her. This book is a wild ride with so many surprising twists.

Professor Hartman has made some remarkable mechs. I especially adore Mrs Rust - the housekeeper. She has a number replaceable hands perfect for every task - spatulas, spoons and a whisk for example. She also has such wonderful expressions and she adores Lily. Here are some of her funny expressions:

"Cogs and chronometers! My tiger-Lil's back!"

"Smokestacks and sprockets."

"Widgets and windscreen wipers."

"Stopwatches and spinning tops."

Peter Bunzl gives us wonderful descriptions of the evil men who are after Malkin and Lily and her friend Robert:

"A big fellow with ginger mutton-shop sideburns arrived carrying a steam-riffle. His body looked lumpen, like a sack of rocks He resembled a crusher ... his cheeks were as red as bulging blood sausages. But what made Robert gulp was the pair of silver mirrors screwed into the raw sockets of the man's eyes. Scars  emanated from them, criss-crossing his cheeks, and running up under the brim of his hat."

Cogheart is the first book in this series. I accidentally stumbled across a comment by Peter Bunzl about Steampunk which is a genre I really enjoy. His comment made me curious to read his books so I have begun with the first published in 2016 (it is actually Peter's first book) and I do hope to continue the series. You can see the three books above. I do like their covers and on the Cogheart website they have been animated. I hope we meet Mrs Rust in the next installment and perhaps gain further insights into the emotional sensibilities of the mechs created by the professor.


An extraordinary story, exceptionally written it truly is a future classic which will be enjoyed by children and adults alike. Book Lover Jo

You can read the prologue to Cogheart on the Usborne site. Peter Bunzl has some activities for each book on his website. Here is a set of discussion questions. Peter Bunzl answers five questions. Listen to Peter talk about his book on this podcast.

In an Australian classroom you might link this book with Mechanica and Aquatica. If you enjoy Cogheart, and I think you will,  I would recommend other Steampunk books such as Mortal Engines by Philip Reeve, Airborn by Kenneth Oppel and also the wonderful book Tin by Padraig Kenny.

Here is a display by a class in a UK school where they develop the idea of Mechanimals - Malkin, the fox for example, is a mechanimal.