Just So Stories

New South Books

NLA Publishing

November 2024

9781922507709/ AUD$24.99, NZD$29.99

What a happy and full-of-warmth book this is! We know to expect entertaining animal stories from Julie Murphy, and we also know we can count on some information as well. This one does not disappoint.

With some lovely rhyming descriptors of the many and varied dogs one sees at the dog beach [and yes, we sure do see some – yesterday, it was my first Old English sheepdog for a long, long time!], Julie captures the very essence of dog beaches – places where dogs and their owners can chill and have fun together, and everyone knows everyone else – or soon will! This has that same delightful rhythmic quality of Lynley Dodd’s books and I just love it. I can hear myself reading it aloud to some Smalls, with an excitable follow-up conversational scrimmage afterwards about all the class’ dogs.

Look who’s at the dog beach!

Strong dogs, long dogs,

Playing dogs, staying dogs,

Black dogs, brown dogs, go-to-town dogs,

Bit-of-a-clown dogs, upside-down dogs,

Mopey dogs, dopey dogs,

Shaggy dogs, waggy dogs .

And then we come to the back matter where author Julie has provided snapshots of various jobs that dogs do – because they’re not just all about leaping about in the sand and waves.

Smalls will know about police dogs and, likely, guide dogs and farm dogs, but may not be quite so familiar with support dogs and sled dogs. The photos, both new and old, that accompany these fact files are really well-chosen providing a real range for discussions.

And both narrative and information will make a terrific springboard for writing, vocabulary especially onomatapoeia and noun groups/modifiers as well as some artwork and personal story-telling.

Annie White’s illustrations of these many doggos are just wonderful. Each with its own expression and quirks – I especially like the snooty Afghan [coincidentally, also saw one of those twice, during the past week – not very often seen these days] but the black toy poodle is also appealing, as this one looks like my Pippin.

All in all, this is just a big winner – yes, I can see it being on awards lists in the coming year – and your kiddos from Kindy up to around Year 2 or 3 will love it. It gets a big barking 🐶🐶🐶🐶🐶 rating from me. I know there’s not much left of the school year, nor likely your budget but make sure it’s firmly on your list.