Book review : The Child Who - Simon Lelic

The Child Who starts with a sickening crime - the murder and sexual assault of an eleven-year-old girl - but what makes it even more horrifying is that the perpetrator is another child, a twelve-year-old boy called Daniel Blake. The strapline on the front of the book says : "For two families, nothing will ever be the same again". I assumed this to be the families of the victim and the murderer, but the victim's family barely gets a mention in fact - the book focuses on the complicated relationship between Daniel and his assigned lawyer, Leo Curtis, and the consequences for Leo's family when he becomes the target of a hate mail campaign. Under British law, everyone is entitled to legal representation, however awful their crimes, but this does not sit easy with the general public, or even those closest to Leo, who hold it against him and put the pressure on for him to stop.

Although Daniel's crimes are undoubtedly wicked, the book tends to see him, to a lesser degree, as a victim too, exploring avenues that would suggest that his upbringing or possible abuse in his early childhood may have pushed him onto this path. Some of the judge's decisions, such as trying him as an adult, revealing his identity to the press and sending him to a detention centre where he is by far the youngest resident, are all viewed rather critically. It is a thought-provoking read that makes you wonder if jail time or some other form of rehabilitation would be better suited to such a young child, but you still can't get over the fact that he needs to be punished for such violent and vicious crimes, even if ultimately you feel sorry for him as the story unfolds.

The book vaguely reminded me of the Jamie Bulger case, but I didn't realise just how many parallels there were until I saw the author's notes at the end of the book and checked the details online. When two-year-old Jamie (or James as his family called him - it was only the press that started calling him Jamie apparently) was kidnapped, tortured and brutally murdered by two baby faced ten-year-olds in 1993, they became the youngest convicted murderers in modern English history. I remember the harrowing story on the news but wasn't aware of the scenes at the court or what happened afterwards, so it's worth reading up on the details of the original case to see how it influenced the novel.

The most important thing in the story isn't the crime though - it's watching the hapless lawyer's life turn into a living nightmare as he becomes another unexpected victim of a crime he had no part in. Definitely a thought-provoking read.

star rating : 4/5

• Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: Picador; Main Market Ed. edition (5 July 2012)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0330522752
• ISBN-13: 978-0330522755
• Product Dimensions: 13 x 2.2 x 19.7 cm

Ravensburger puzzle review : World Wonders 2000 piece

Ravensburger recently sent us through one of their puzzles to review and I correctly predicted that it would turn into a family project over Christmas.

The World Wonders puzzle contains a whopping 2000 pieces - the largest puzzle I think I have ever undertaken - so make sure you have some help and make sure you also have a tablecloth handy because your dining room table wil be requisitioned for at least a couple of days !

The panoramic (wide and relatively short) puzzle measures 132 x 61cm so it just about fit our table - you might want to measure your table first though to be on the safe side !

It is jam packed with details so it's one of those puzzles where you will be constantly looking at the picture on the box to see where each section goes. What slightly confused us to begin with is the wraparound, meaning that there are two Hollywoods and two Sydney Opera Houses, for example, on both edges.

It's an educational puzzle if the kids get involved, pointing out the different continents and countries, as well as the various cultural symbols, landmarks and wildlife that represent them.

It's a beautiful puzzle that would look great framed in a child's bedroom once complete.

We even discovered Father Christmas, which was very apt, as we were doing the puzzle on Christmas Day and Boxing Day.

As you can see, it's such a big puzzle that we had to climb up on a chair to manage to fit it all in shot !

We always like a family project like a puzzle to keep up busy and away from our screens over Christmas and this one was perfect, because it was as addictive as it was challenging. The pieces fit together really well so it was easy to slide and even lift different sections into place and it also survived having the tablecloth put on and pulled off repeatedly. As you can see, we were all really proud when it was complete ... then the kids had great fun breaking it all up again !

star rating : 5/5

RRP : £21.99

Disclosure : We received the product in order to write an honest review.

Almost like Christmas again !

It almost seemed like Christmas again today (minus the turkey !) when a very special parcel arrived from Character Options. We, along with a whole bunch of other selected bloggers, will be opening it all up on the 11th of January and showing you what's inside. Exciting ! In the meantime, I'll give you a sneaky peek of the inner box which gives you a big clue as to what's inside !

Pierre and Juliette spet a happy hour playing with the outer box, making it into a boat then a house and hiding inside of it like a Jack in the box. Remind me how much we spent on Christmas  presents again !

Our (almost !) Zimsterne Garland #BahlsenChristmas

Bahlsen sent us through a lovely festive icing kit  containing some of their seasonal biscuits and challenged us to create a Zimsterne Garland.

Piere was already enchanted when he discovered the little white iced, star-shaped cinnamon biscuits. They taste wonderfully festive but the cinnamon taste isn't overpowering so the kids loved them too.

We had great fun jazzing them up with red and green icing gel pens and silver balls.

Unfortunately when we tried to thread them onto the garland, they kept breaking apart.

So we decided to just display them on a festive place mat instead.

Pierre was very proud of his hard work and went around handing them out to everyone. They were soon gobbled up - although we did keep one back for Father Christmas on Christmas Eve .

Disclosure : We received some festive Bahsen biscuits along with an icing kit to decorate them.

Grab a bargain with Scholastic and get free books for your school

 Just a quick heads up that this Christmas Day, Scholastic Book Clubs launched their biggest clearance sale offer ever, with up to 88% discount on the RRP of some books.

 But that's not all. When you shop in the sale, every order over £10 will benefit schools. Scholastic will give 20% of the order value to a school selected by the shopper, so that the school can then buy FREE books to stock their libraries and classrooms – a fantastic free Christmas present for your child’s school.

There are great savings on some of the best books around at the moment, plus bargains to be had on classics from the likes of Roald Dahl, Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler. There are also some amazing-value book packs where you can stock your shelves for less with prices start from a staggering 75p a book, as well as Christmas and stock clearance lines with some books starting from as little as 99p.

 Shop the sale here http://shop.scholastic.co.uk/sale from the 25th December. You can also follow sale updates #scholasticsale at www.facebook.com/ScholasticUK Twitter @scholasticuk Instagram Scholastic_UK

Globecooking recipe :Jollof rice (Nigeria) #readcookeat

There wasn't much food mentioned in The Dragon Society by Olufunmi Omopariola Olayinka (click through to read my review) other than burgers and chips, but I did find one reference that had me scuttling off to google to investigate :

p25 "Precious Ojo's christening turned out to be a very big celebration at the A La Carte restaurant owned by her father, Bode Ojo [...] Steven noticed Carol filling her plate with pounded yam, vegetable soup and beef stew. He decided to settle for fried rice, jollof rice and fried plantain."

Wikipedia explains : "Jollof rice, also called Benachin (Wolof: "one pot"), is a one-pot rice dish popular in many West African countries, eaten whenever desired. It is a West African version of pilaf or paella, and possibly a progenitor of the Louisianian dish, jambalaya."

It's more of a concept than a specific recipe, so I looked at Jamie Oliver's Jollof Rice and a Jollof Rice with Chicken recipe on the BBC Good Food website for inspiration, before coming up with my own version based on the contents of the fridge.

Jollof Rice

ingredients :

6 chicken thighs (optional)

1 clove garlic

2 onions

1/2 red pepper

1/2 green pepper

1 cup leftover ratatouille (you could add any leftover cooked meat or vegetables)

1 tub cherry tomatoes

2 tomatoes

salt, pepper, spices (I used Ethiopian berberé spices but you could use chilli, ginger, cumin, nutmeg)

1 chicken stock cube

2tbsp tomato puree

2 cups rice

2 cups water

Put the chicken in a roasting tin. Grind over some salt and peper, drizzle with oil and put in the oven at 180°. (You could just leave this out for a vegetarian dish.)

First chop the garlic.

Then the onions and cook over a low heat in a drizzle of oil. They need to be soft but not browned.

If using up cooked vegetables or meat (I had some ratatouille), put it in a large pan.

Chop up the red and green peppers and tomatoes.

The chicken should be half cooked by now so toss in the cherry tomatoes. (I didn't have many left as I was winding down the fridge before visiting family !)

Add the red and green peppers and tomatoes to the pan. Add the stock cube and water and stir in the tomato puree and spices.

Toss in the rice and reduce the heat. Leave to cook for about 15 minutes until the rice is cooked and the liquid has been mostly absorbed.

Check the chicken is cooked through. 

Add the cherry tomatoes to the pan and give it all a good stir. (I also added the juices from the roasting tin for extra flavour.) Lay the chicken thighs on the top of the rice and serve.

*** Don't miss my country-by-country globecooking recipe index ! ***

Cooking the books to join in with Galina's #ReadCookEat linky at Chez Maximka.

As this cleared out the veg box of the fridge, I'm also linking it up to my #KitchenClearout linky.

Simply having a #MinionsChristmas time !

All three of the Madhouse kids love the Minions so they were delighted to receive a fabulous festive crafts kit featuring lots of Minions goodies.

Sophie immediately nabbed the hat before the others even got a look in !

Then Pierre and Juliette took up the challenge of transforming the ceramic baubles into mini Minions.

They even roped in Autie Em !

They had great fun and were very proud of their finished creations.

So we had to put them on the tree !

We weren't the only ones with Minions-themed Christmas decorations this year though !

Disclosure : We received a Minions crafts kit in order to take part in the #MinionsChristmas challenge.

Kids' craft idea : Toilet Roll Owls

Not to be outdone by big sister Juliette and her amazing 3d paper snowflake, Pierre wanted to show me how to recreate one of the crafts projects he'd done at afterschool club too - toilet roll owls. Very cute they are too !

The top one he made at school with some help and this one he made all by himself, which made him very proud !

Take a toilet roll tube and paint it brown.

Squish in both ends.

Add big wide eyes (like Pierre's !) and a beak. Cut out circes of gold (or yellow) paper and stick five or six, overlapped, on his tummy.

Cut out wings and stick them on both sides. Well done Pierre !