Review of Rick Stein at Home: Recipes, Memories and Stories from a Food Lover’s Kitchen – Rick Stein

Home is more than a place. It’s a feeling.

Rick Stein has spent his life travelling the world in search of cooking perfection – from France and Italy to Australia and the far east – and inspiring millions of food lovers with the results. In Rick Stein At Home, he takes us into the rhythms and rituals of his home cooking. In his first book to celebrate his all-time favourite home-cooked meals, Rick shares over 100 very special recipes, including many from his recent Cornwall series – from sumptuous main courses such as Cornish Bouillabaisse and Braised Pork Belly with Soy and Black Vinegar to indulgent desserts like Apple Charlotte and Spiced Pears Poached with Blackberries and Red Wine.

Rick explores family classics that evoke childhood memories and newer dishes that have marked more recent personal milestones – along with unforgettable stories that celebrate his favourite ingredients, food memories, family cooking moments and more. Sharing the dishes he most loves to cook for family and friends throughout the year, Rick takes you inside his home kitchen unlike he’s done in any previous book.

Rick Stein at Home: Recipes, Memories and Stories from a Food Lover’s Kitchen

\Rick Stein

BBC Books

Supplied by Penguin Random House New Zealand

Reviewed by Jacqui Smith

Now it’s a well-know fact that I’m a big fan of Rick Stein’s TV shows. He is very easy to listen to, and I do find the travel-with-food show to be very relaxing viewing. But I’ve never read any of his books (although I have been known to look up a recipe that caught my eye on the internet). Turns out that he’s very easy to enjoy in print as well; you can almost hear Rick speaking as you read.

The book is very much a product of the pandemic, of much time spent at home in lockdown, cooking for family. It is a collection of recipes you can and will cook at home; interspersed with essays full of memories and of sound advice. Like using the microwave to make your Christmas feast easier to manage (a thing chefs certainly do, but rarely advise).

The recipes are an eclectic mixture, collected from Rick’s family and friends, and on his travels. They are sorted in familiar order, from bar snacks through to desserts and baking, including an excellent vegetarian section; and there is a good index.

The emphasis is on simplicity and ease of preparation; the presentation quite homely, even a bit rustic, not at all cheffy. The illustrations are lovely and show what the dish should look like when you, a mere mortal, make it.

This is exactly what it says it is, a collection of Rick Stein’s favourite recipes, simplified for home cooks. I can see a number of them becoming favourites in many households, including mine.

Recommended.

Review of The Dinos On The Bus – Peter Millet & Tony Neal

Hop on and sing along to the tune of “The Wheels on the Bus” in this collectable new picture book series!

Roar, stomp and clap along with a class of playful dinosaurs as they go on their first bus journey!

“The Wheels on the Bus” transforms into the squeals on the bus as the little dinos travel up and down, round and round, all through the land. Packed full of actions to join in, with a calming ending to wind down after all the excitement, this is the perfect first picture book to enjoy together.

Young readers will stomp their feet and clap their hands in delight as they sing along with this fun-filled, dinosaur reinvention of this popular rhyme!

The Dinos On The Bus

Peter Millet & Tony Neal

Ladybird

Supplied by Penguin Random House New Zealand

Reviewed by Jan Butterworth

A bunch of little dinosaurs are going for their first trip on the bus!

They meet many interesting, passengers on the journey as they travel up and down, round and round, all through the land.

The book is large and easy to hold while juggling a lap full of little people. The illustrations are bright and colourful and fun to look at.  The text is easy to read black and varies in size and thickness, while the placement of the words is quirky and uses the whole page.

The story is so much fun to read out loud and sing along to, with the catchy lyrics of the familiar song being complemented by the stunning illustrations. The action starts to slow down near the end and the final scene is calming and a good way to ease into naptime.

This book is a must have and a great way to engage babies or toddlers with books and reading.  Parents may become sick of the repeditiveness of the song though.

Review of The Upper World – Femi Fadugba

A game-changing thriller about two teenagers a generation apart, connected by one bullet with the power to devastate both of their lives. Get ready to reconsider everything you thought you knew about time . . .

Esso is a teenager running out of time and into trouble. Accidentally caught up in a gang war, he receives an unexpected gift: access to a world where he can see glimpses of the past and future. But now Esso has the devastating knowledge that the road he is on will eventually lead to the deaths of the people he loves most.
A generation later, football prodigy Rhia is about to lose everything. When a man comes into her life claiming to know the key to time travel and asking for her help, she becomes obsessed with finding a way back to the past to save the parents she never got to meet . . .

Two teenagers. Fifteen years. One chance to stop a bullet.

The Upper WorldFemi Fadugba

Penguin

Supplied by Penguin Random House New Zealand

Reviewed by Jacqui Smith

This is a very odd book, a strange mixture of ancient philosophy, esoteric physics and East London youth culture. It seems to be aimed at young adults, or more accurately at those who think they know what young adults should want to read.

I did not find it at all relatable, and I’m not sure that many New Zealand young people would get into it either. It might have helped had there been a second appendix translating the copious amounts of East London slang for those who don’t happen to live in that culture.

There are two protagonists, a boy named Esso, living in our time (not quite, there is no pandemic) and a girl named Rhia, living fifteen years in the future. As I think of it, it may be in part that near future with no pandemic that threw me. This is not our world, for all the realism, and that was jarring. And with the publication date being 2021, there could have been some editing.

So, we have ancient philosophy, Plato’s ‘Upper World’. We have a lot of physics (there is an appendix full of calculus). We have a couple of kids who get caught up in a gang war in different times. And we have a strange kind of mental time travel, and a desire to change the past. But somehow, none of this grabbed me. I’m not sure that it ever would have. I know the critics liked this book. I didn’t. There is apparently going to be a Netflix series. I won’t be watching.

Review of Slinky Malinki’s Christmas Crackers – Lynley Dodd

Sneaky Slinky Malinki is creating mayhem at Christmastime!

Christmas was coming.
Out came the tree,
dressed up in finery,
splendid to see.
Trinkets and tinsel
with baubles and bows,
a mouse with a hat
and a very red
nose.

It’s Christmas in Slinky Malinki’s house and the rapscallion, mischievous cat is most curious about the Christmas tree. With its reindeer, ribbons, baubles and bells, it’s too tempting a treat for Slinky not to investigate. So Slinky Malinki, with mischievous glee, creeps out from the shadows to climb up the tree . . .

Slinky Malinki’s Christmas Crackers

Lynley Dodd

Puffin MR

Supplied by Penguin Random House New Zealand

Reviewed by Jan Butterworth

Christmas is coming and the tree needs to be decorated!  It’s lavishly covered with trinkets and tinsel, baubles and bows, and a fairy on top of the tree.  Then Slinky Malinki sneaks out to investigate and climbs the tree, destroying the decorations and hiding objects.  The humans appear to make things right and restore the tree top its former glory. 

Something’s missing from the top of the tree though and the humans search everywhere unsuccessfully.  But then someone spots something.  The tree now has an extra special fairy…….

The book is a board book that’s easy to hold and pages that won’t be accidentally crumbled and torn by eager little fists.  The illustrations are magical and full of detail and restful colours.  The text is easy to read black set on a solid contrasting background.

The story is so much fun to read out loud and the perfect present for your favourite little person.  The illustrations are exquisite and this book is a must-have on your bookshelf.

(As the owner of a miniature black panther who’s naughtier than Slinki Malinki, this scenario is why I’m not putting the tree up this year – why ask for trouble?!)

Review of Mallory, Mallory: Trick or Treat – James Norcliffe

Scheming Mallory and her reluctant sidekick Arthur have a Halloween misadventure involving nasty tricks, time travel and a sneaky cat.

Mallory wants candy, as much as she can grab, and she’s prepared to play some tricks (and kick a pesky black cat) to get it. But when she and her reluctant sidekick Arthur tangle with the owner of a spooky old house, the trick is on them. In the beat of a bat’s wing, they’re a century back in time with a mission to find that slippery cat, or Mallory will change shape forever . . .

Mallory, Mallory: Trick or Treat

James Norcliffe

Puffin

Supplied by Penguin Random House New Zealand

Reviewed by Jacqui Smith

Mallory is back in another short novel aimed at older children, but that can easily be enjoyed by adults who will no doubt be intrigued, but probably figure out as soon as I did what is really going on.

Mallory, you understand is not a good girl. She has one friend, Arthur, from whose point of view the story is told. She is always getting the two of them into trouble – strange and unusual troubles – and mostly it’s Arthur that gets them out again.

When it comes to Halloween, it’s obvious that Mallory is more interested in tricks than treats. But then she tricks altogether the wrong person, and then something quite extraordinary happens. The children find themselves in the past. With a mission to find a cat. Which is not as simple a task as it might seem.

Mallory and Arthur meet up with children from that time and learn that the past is a very different place. Oh, and that it’s a good idea to be nice to black cats.

This is a fun tale, with some excellent twists. Recommended for tweens and their adults.

Review of Atua: Maori Gods and Heroes –Gavin Bishop

Gavin Bishop’s stunning, once-in-a-generation compendium introduces readers to the pantheon of Maori gods, demigods and heroes, and explores Aotearoa’s most exciting legends from the Creation to the Migration.

Meet the gods, demigods and heroes of the Maori people of Aotearoa in this breathtaking, large-scale illustrated book for children.
Before the beginning there was nothing.
No sound, no air, no colour – nothing.
TE KORE, NOTHING.
No one knows how long this nothing lasted because there was no time.
However, in this great nothing there was a sense of waiting.
Something was about to happen.
Meet the gods, demigods and heroes of the Maori world, and explore Aotearoa’s exciting legends from the Creation to the Migration. Fascinating, beautiful and informative, this once-in-a-generation compendium deserves a place on every bookshelf.

Atua: Maori Gods and Heroes

Gavin Bishop

Picture Puffin

Supplied by Penguin Random House New Zealand

Reviewed by Jan Butterworth

This book is stunning!

It tells the story of how the gods came to be and explains who each one is and their responsibilities.   This is cleverly displayed on paged that fold out to create a page twice the size of the book – which is a good size anyway.

It shares the stories of creation and explains them, like how man gained the three kete of knowledge and two sacred stones  all that is needed to create wisdom in the world – and explains what each holds, as well as how we got sandflies mosquitoes

The artwork uses bold colours and is very detailed.  I found it very hard to read some of the text as the lettering was blue on a black background or a faded black on a white background.

There’s a glossary in the back that explains what the Maori words mean – and what a kete is – and the credit section is an interesting read.

This was very interesting read that helped me find out more about Maori legends and explained words and concepts in simple language, such as tikanga and why food is offered as a gift.  I only had a vague notion of what they were or why it was done.  Knowing why some thing is done is good knowledge to have.

I would recommend this for any te reo speaker, those looking to increase their knowledge of Maori legends, anyone interested in mythology…..  Growing up in the 80s, I never heard these stories and am glad I have now.