Just So Stories

Rosella Ridge Books

June 2024

ISBN: 9780648938240

RRP: $18.00

Sandra Bennett

This is the first of this series I’ve read but I definitely enjoyed it, and think your readers would as well, especially those who like a combination of adventure, mystery and family.

Although I hadn’t read any of the previous episodes, it wasn’t too difficult to pick up the threads but I suggest that your kiddos would be best to start with #1. The Adamson siblings: Luke, Clare and Tom have had a strange pet living at their Uncle Tom’s farm up in Queensland, since they somehow brought back a mysterious egg from the past.

But Zoe, the giant bird, has gone AWOL, and it seems that she has hitchhiked in the back of a Tasmanian truck which was delivering apples – her favourite food – and is now roaming the Tassie wilderness. There have been sightings and a media frenzy is building fast, not to mention a university team keen to find this mysterious beast.

The Adamsons know they need to go and find her before anyone else does. Some quick talking and they are on their way with their father in charge of the expedition. It’s a race against the clock in some of Tasmania’s wildest terrain, encountering amazing wildlife but also a suspicious hermit, some angry poachers and then, their Dad being injured. Things get quite tense, but nothing that would be too confronting for readers from mid-primary to early secondary.

There are some solid themes here of initiative and resilience, as well as care of the environment, and some important focus on endangered, as well as extinct, species. This was well-paced and thoughtfully executed with some good characterisation. I felt though that the dialogue was, at times, a little too formal for a bunch of siblings out in the bush, particularly ones who do display a little rivalry at times. Perhaps, I’m just used to my own kids and those I encounter “¯\_(ツ)_/¯ ” . In addition, there’s a good addition of a few pages of informative backmatter, that kids will enjoy, particularly the tracks for various animals.

Available from 1st June in bookshops, Amazon and Sandra’s own website, and part of the book tour for Write for Kids Australia… it does give me great pleasure to recommend it to you for your readers from around 8 or 9 upwards to 12/13. I would also suggest you buy the first three as well.