Just So Stories

Random Reviews and Ramblings from Redcliffe


  • Seed to Sky: life in the Daintree – Pamela Freeman and Liz Anelli

    Walker Books April 2024 ISBN13:9781760653750 Australia RRP:$26.99 New Zealand RRP:$28.99 Book 3 of Nature Storybooks Series If you haven’t been to the Daintree and FNQ, I’m suggesting right now that you put it on your bucketlist. I have been there three times, the first as a little kid of about 6 after a long train trip…

  • Pearl and Friends #3: The Flower Fairy – Sally Odgers. Adele K. Thomas

    Scholastic Australia March 2024 ISBN 9781761203046 RRP: $9.99 There is absolutely no sign of the Smalls’ fascination with unicorns, magic, and fairies abating – thank goodness!! We have enough trouble in the world without our Littles losing their love of all things sparkly. Sally Odgers has long proven her skill in writing highly engaging and…

  • Emma Memma Little Library

    Penguin Australia Here’s some more delightful Emma Memma joy and this is for your tiniest Smalls. For us, that means little Daisy now a few months old and just adorable! It’s a little slipcase with teeny-sized concept board books just perfect for teeny-sized hands. Includes books– Numbers- Colours- Animals- Auslan and each is just like…

  • Inside Story: a creative writing masterclass – Sue Lawson and Jodi Toering

    Wild Dog Books Distributed by Simon & Schuster April 2024 ISBN13: 9781742036670 RRP: AU$ 24.99 / NZ$ 28.99 If your teaching experiences have been like mine -whether primary or secondary kiddos or both as mine have been – there are always those who really struggle with creative writing. Truth be told, I also do –…

  • How to Move a Zoo: the incredible true story – Kate Simpson and Owen Swan

    Allen & Unwin June 2024 ISBN:9781761180309 Publisher:A&U Children’s Imprint:A & U Children RRP: $24.99 I’m a Sydney girl even though I’ve now lived in Queensland, on and off, for almost forty years, so Taronga Park Zoo and Moore Park are familiar names full of memories of a happy childhood. I was taken to Taronga by…

  • The Other Shadow – Tania Ingram

    Scholastic Australia July 2024 Imprint: Omnibus Books ISBN: 9781761203251 ISBN-10: 1761203258 RRP: $15.99 Well, we all know that Tania Ingram is a gifted writer, particularly of humorous fiction – just witness the runaway success of Aggie Flea [why, oh why are we not getting more Aggie, I ask?]. With this new MG novel, Tania proves her versatility…

  • Mim and the Vicious Vendetta:#5 The Travelling Bookshop- Katrina Nannestad. Illustrated by Cheryl Orsini.

    Harper Collins Australia March 2024 To be honest, Katrina’s books sell themselves, they really don’t need any help from me. In particular, her series like this one which have engaged readers from the outset. Take a horse-drawn ‘bookshop’, a somewhat eccentric bookseller father, an excitable [and possibly neuro-divergent] little brother (of course, that might just…

  • Camp Chaos: Willa and Woof # 7 – Jacqueline Harvey. Illustrations by A. Yi

    Penguin Australia June 2024 Each new Willa and Woof adventure makes me think “Oh this is the best yet!” but, somehow, they just keep coming – and getting better! I really LOVE this one. It makes me, as an adult, think of all the camps I’ve taken kiddos on, both school and with Brownies (later…

  • Tracks in the Mist: #4 The Adamson Adventures – Sandra Bennett

    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…

  • Her Majesty’s League of Remarkable Young Ladies – Alison D. Stegert

    Chicken House May 2024 ISBN: 9781915026095 ISBN-10: 1915026091 Published: 1st May 2024 RRP: $19.99 It’s always such a pleasure to review a friend’s book. It is even more so when that friend is a near-neighbour, Sunshine Coast writer Alison D. Stegert. I have been waiting for quite a long time to get my hands on this one, especially…