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    Tin Boy
    Tin Boy
    Tin Boy
    Ebook69 pages50 minutes

    Tin Boy

    By Steve Cole and Oriol Vidal

    ()

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    About this ebook

    The true cost of the tin that goes into our electronic devices is revealed in this striking and gripping story from the bestselling author of Young Bond.

    Mining for tin in deep, dangerous trenches is the only life that Tono has ever known. Worked to the brink of exhaustion each day, his only escape is in the precious moments when he reads his dad's old comics. In a world of heroes and superpowers, he can forget the terrifying mining pits.

    But an underwater avalanche, a glimpse of something bright red in the sandy seabed, and a canny sidekick are about to transform Tono's life forever …

    Particularly suitable for readers aged 9+ with a reading age of 8.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins UK
    Release dateOct 1, 2020
    ISBN9781800900097
    Tin Boy
    Author

    Steve Cole

    Linda Chapman and Steve Cole are both bestselling authors in their native England; between them, they have written more than a hundred books for children. Be a Genie in Six Easy Steps was their first collaboration. Linda's books include the series My Secret Unicorn, Unicorn School, Stardust, and Not Quite a Mermaid, while Steve has created the Astrosaurs and Cows in Action series as well as Thieves Like Us and Z. Rex for older readers.

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      Book preview

      Tin Boy - Steve Cole

      CHAPTER 1

      Deep Down

      I don’t want to go, but there isn’t any choice.

      At dawn we walk the worn path from our village to Rebo beach. The pontoons wait for us: rafts bound together with driftwood and reeds, plastic barrels, pipes and hoses, and hope. Soon we’ll be out on the ocean, choking on the diesel smoke, the sound of the generator splitting our ears. We’ll pitch from side to side as the sand is sucked from the seabed so it can be searched for fine black crystals.

      This is what my family does, from youngest to eldest. We scavenge for tin. We dig into the land or the seabed, mining for tin ore. The world can’t live without tin. Tin is used inside smartphones and laptops, cars and computers – things I’ll never have. I wonder if anyone ever thinks where it comes from, this metal glue that makes their gadgets work …

      Or what we risk to get it.

      I turn to Rustam, my uncle, who limps along beside me. I don’t want to go down into the water today, I say.

      He grunts and tells me, You must, Tono.

      But I’m only a kid – that’s what you keep saying.

      You can work at your age, Rustam says, then adds, And I can’t go, can I? You want me dead like your old man? Who’ll look after us all then?

      Rustam pushes me away, and I fall behind. I hate him. But I have to stay with Rustam, because Dad died and my mum left with my sister to find work. He doesn’t really want me here, so I get the last of everything: food, clothes, kindness. Not that there’s much to begin with.

      Yan strides over the sand to join me. Yan is my cousin, and Rustam’s son. He’s almost a man now, and I share a room with him. He searches my face like he searches wet sand for tin. I know he’s looking for tears. I won’t show him any.

      Don’t be scared, Tono, Yan says. He only has teeth on one side of his mouth, but he still smiles a lot. No one’s died in the mines for months. And I’ll be near you.

      Can I have the wetsuit? I ask him. It’s too small for you.

      And too big for you, Yan replies. It’d flap about and slow you down. His tongue flicks over his broken teeth as always. I know you wish you were some big deal in tights from those comics you read …

      Superheroes, I say.

      Yeah, yeah. The titanic Tin Boy! Yan laughs. Just remember, the person’s the hero, Tono. They change into the suit – the suit doesn’t change them.

      Real deep, Yan.

      He smiles again. Not as deep down as we’re going, Tin Boy.

      I snort, trying to laugh it off.

      Truth is, I do wish I could pretend to be somebody stronger. I look down at myself. No shirt. Scrawny stick legs. Pale cotton shorts held together by mud and stubbornness, like the rest of me.

      The growl and sputter of the generators on the pontoons drowns out the sound of the ocean. Clouds of salt smoke and diesel blow across my face as I climb on board. Rustam and Yan push our raft out into the sea.

      Yan puts on his wetsuit. It’s grey where once it was black, and it’s torn at the seams. He hands me my face mask as Rustam switches on the compressor, which blows dirty air down a plastic tube and into our lungs. A magic machine keeping us alive while we work. The whole pontoon trembles with the compressor’s whine, and so do I.

      The sea is busy with pontoons like ours. Then a deep sound blasts from the sky and we look past our rickety vessels to a giant ship – the dredger owned by a private mining company. The ship shakes as if it’s laughing as it eats the world beneath the waves. Its bucketwheels bite deep down into the seabed, spitting out mud and swallowing the tin. What will be left for us?

      I look in the water, but it’s thick with sand. It shows no reflection, like I’m invisible.

      Yan puts

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