Just So Stories

Walker Books Australia

May 2025

ISBN:9781761601453

RRP: $17.99/New Zealand RRP:$19.99

Now, how to describe this delightfully quirky and sometimes dark quasi-horror with heart? It’s a little bit My Dead Rabbit, maybe a little bit Coraline, and a little bit The Graveyard Book. And then there’s A Girl Called Corpse – and soon you will get onto a great MG book called R.I.P. Nanny Tobbins (June release).

In other words, if you have readers who love the ghoulish, the weird, the somewhat repulsive but are also discerning enough to sift through the layers in this one, you’ll want it on your shelf.

Clare is the half-dead fox who was recruited as a small ‘smooshed’ (by a car) kit to be the new Usher of lost souls to the Afterlife. When I say recruited, the previous Usher offered him the choice to be either completely dead or half-dead as long as he took on the Usher’s role. For a young fox, there seemed to be more scope in the second one.

It’s not like Clare has to personally direct every dead animal’s soul to their afterlife, it’s more the ones who seem unable to find their way. Often, they don’t even realise that they are actually dead. Clare’s been in his role – and pretty adept at it -for what he thinks is about six years when a badger called Gingersnipes turns up on his doorstep, when he should be having a regular 3 day break after an ushering job.

She is invisible to everyone else, highly annoying and despite sending her to each of the four afterlife doors in turn, she just keeps turning up. Going to ask the ‘oracle’ Hesterfowl for help only makes things worse. The bizarre grouse tells Clare that his time is up, Gingersnipes is to be the new Usher and his half-dead life is to be over. In other words, he’s going to be completely dead. Strange as it might seem, Clare’s a bit miffed about that.

His attempts to confound the Afterlife’s purpose not to mention misleading Gingersnipes are both hilarious and poignant at the same time. Bit by bit, the reader learns of Clare’s sad history, as well as Gingersnipes’ own, and are drawn into this unusual tale of grief, love, redemption and friendship. Throw in a scheming Trashrat, who’s pretty much only out for his own ends, a smug ancient tortoise, a garden of very much-loved fungi, some nasty kids but one very special little girl, and you have a narrative that will have any of your adept and thoughtful readers fully engaged. It really does get a foxy (dead or undead) 5 🦊🦊🦊🦊🦊 rating for readers from around year 4.