Lullaby by Leila Slimani

“The baby is dead.” It is this genius opening line of the book that first grips you (by the throat) and doesn’t let go until you turn the final page. 

Lullaby is the story of Myriam and Paul, a young couple with two small children and their nanny Louise. When Myriam decides to return to work, a choice accepted only reluctantly by Paul, the couple hire Louise, prim and proper, with her Peter Pan collar and her hair tied back in a clean knot, to look after their children. “My Nanny is a miracle-worker," Myriam proclaims to her friends, as they file in for Louise’s perfect meals in the small but, thanks to Louise, perfectly tidy apartment. Louise adores the children who adore her right back and Myriam and Paul can’t believe their luck and return to the lives they had dreamt of for themselves.

Things are, of course, never quite as they seem and as Louise slowly weaves herself into the fabric of the family, author Leila Slimani takes the reader back into the dark story and history of this woman who while she is in control of everything in Myriam and Paul’s life has lost control of everything in her own life. Her enhanced position in the household juxtaposed with the life she lead in the shadows of French society and the dark streets of Paris.

Lullaby is a beautifully written, atmospheric thriller, but it is also a strong and deftly crafted critique of society; of those who rise up and those who spend their lives in an unstoppable freefall towards the bottom.

The ending is on the first page, but the journey back to that beginning is at turns exciting, sad, thought provoking and frightening.

Lullaby is a book that requires a few breaks, but can so easily be read in just one sitting, breathlessly, anxiously on the edge of your seat.

Do it. You won’t regret it!

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Frederik Sandwich and the earthquake that couldn’t possibly be by Kevin John Scott

'Frederik Sandwich and the earthquake that couldn’t possibly be' is a fantastic tale based in the near environment of the scandinavian countries. Frederik Sandwich was born in Frederik’s Hill where almost every male in the town was called Frederik. However he is not completely from the place, Frederick was born on Frederiks hill  because his family moved there before he was born, hoping to start a new and peaceful life. Although the fact that Frederik Sandwich was born on Frederik’s Hill he wasn’t treated the same way as the rest of the inhabitants of the hill. Frederik was constantly bullied at school and throughout his day. But when a peculiar ‘earthquake’ occurs at Frederik’s Hill Frederiks life changes forever. With Pernille tha strange and so called ‘freak’ or ‘weirdo’ of the school drags Frederik Sandwich into an investigation on the peculiar events that are occuring throughout Frederik’s Hill. The two soon discover intriguing facts on the towns history and on her ‘ladyship the mayor’ Muriel Kristensen. Frederik and Pernille discover the whereabouts of a crazy tramp and a train conductor and will do the impossible to save the mayor from being harmed.  Will Frederik and Pernille save Frederik’s Hill…

My favourite character in this fantastic book is Pernille, I love her smartness and quick-thinking, her agility and caringness. I can compare many skills and attributes to her including her love for reading and thirst for adventure. My opinion on this novel is that it is very gripping and is full to the brim with intriguing characters, marvelous plots, mysterious cases, and most of all friendship and trust. I love the way this novel makes you turn the pages non stop always looking forward for a new chapter and twist and turns to the already quirky storyline. I, Lahiri Paolella greatly recommend to all the Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart fans and all other magnificent and quirky books, and trust me this book will amaze you!     

Reviewed by Lahiri Paolella (Aged 11)

Happy reading! 

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Educated by Tara Westover

Educated reads like a novel but is a true story of the kind that is almost impossible to believe.

Tara Westover grew up on a mountainside in Idaho in a mormon survivalist family. The winters were harsh and isolating, the summers spent canning fruit, collecting weapons, learning morse code and planning for the end of the world. Tara and her five siblings, several of which were not even registered at birth, are not allowed to attend school, but spend instead their days working with their father in his scrapyard or making herbal mixtures with their midwife mother.

It is a life dominated by fear, isolation, injuries and pain inflicted by parents and siblings suffering from emotional and psychological challenges that go untreated and undetected.

The family’s conviction that the government is out to get them, that they will not be allowed to live according to their norms and beliefs and that they must therefore always be prepared to defend themselves against the outside world leads to life threatening decisions and a paranoia that colors their every move.

More than anything Tara experiences a world where there is absolutely no room for dissent, no allowance for different choices or outside voices. Even as she starts to slowly move away, to separate herself emotionally and physically from her parents and even years later when she finds herself in an entirely different life, she struggles to trust her own voice and her own strength:

“Not knowing for certain, but refusing to give way to those who claim certainty, was a privilege I had never allowed myself. My life was narrated for me by others. Their voices were forceful, emphatic, absolute. It had never occurred to me that my voice might be as strong as theirs.”

Tara Westover’s story is one of resilience, courage and grit. She succeeds in catapulting herself from no schooling to university, first in Utah and later at Cambridge and Harvard. Every decision comes with its own price tag and it is fascinating to watch Tara realize that education is so much more than math, reading and writing. It is about community, about friendships and about understanding social and cultural norms.

It is difficult to imagine what it must be like to grow up thinking that yours is the only world, only to realize at the age of 17 that everyone has lived in a different world. One where you don't have to sleep with a packed backpack under your bed ready for the world to go under; a world where historical and scientific facts matter and a world where the government, schools and doctors are your friends not your enemies.

Educated reminded me in many ways of The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls. It too was the hard to believe story of a young girl growing up under circumstances that were at once, strange, terrible and fascinating. But what the two books mainly have in common is a lack of sentimentality which becomes both authors and both books. Neither woman sees herself as a victim and neither woman hates her family; both women genuinely try to understand the choices their parents made and both women rise above and go way beyond what could reasonably have been expected of them. And for that they deserve our admiration.

Educated is a fascinating and riveting read. You won’t be able to put it down - Happy reading! 

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The Explorer by Katherine Rundell

The Explorer is a book filled to the brim with intrepid characters, deadly animals of the Amazon rainforest and a lost city in the neverending wild. Fred is on an airplane directed to Manaus, with him are two brazilian looking kids a boy and a girl,  whose names are Max and Lila, and a anxious looking british girl whose name is Con. Everything is quite normal until the airplane crashes in the Amazon rainforest. The only survivors of the crash are the kids, Fred, Max, Lila and Con. They soon realize that they have to work together to survive in the harsh jungle. During their daring  journey through the amazon they discover a cigar box with a mysterious map inside - that's when the journey really starts. So now the intrepid children follow the map in the cigar box to a lost city during their voyage they encounter a baby sloth who is taken care by the animal loving Lila. The kids soon arrive to the lost city marked by the map after weeks of surviving and hard work. There they cross paths with a intruiging man whom they nickname The Explorer. But the kids are not sure he is entirely willing to help…

I loved this book because of the complexity of the characters and the gripping storyline full of courage and nature. My favourite character in the novel is Fred the intelligent and daring young man, who is very fascinated by the explorers of lost cities and archeologists of old civilaizations. I reccomend this book to fans of M.G. Leonard and all books filled with Kid - Power!

Reviewed by Lahiri Paolella (Aged 11)

Happy reading! 

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