Just So Stories

Thames & Hudson

July 2025

ISBN: 9781760764944

RRP: $26.99

The ‘fish out of water’ theme can work in various ways in literature – amusing, poignant, sorrowful, hilarious – it all depends on context doesn’t it? This one, to me, is the ‘innocent abroad’.

For many of us who are unaccustomed to travel, the challenge of going to an unknown destination is confronting enough. For a young person from the remote home of the Tiwi Islands (population around 2500 across both Melville and Bathurst) going halfway around the world to Paris (population approximately 10.8 million) would be daunting in itself. For that young person to get completely lost in Paris, unable to speak the language – I spoke English. They spoke French. Nobody spoke Tiwi. – and with only 50 Euro in his pockets – quelle horreur!

Glen was in a real pickle. The young man wanders here and there, encounters enough kind people to help him a little bit further including feeding and sheltering him, but all the time he is still lost, and becoming increasingly anxious about missing the flight back home to Tiwi.

Readers will see the famous sights of Paris through Glen’s eyes and via his absolutely sensational artwork…[do yourself a favour and take an internet stroll through Glen’s work in various galleries]. Of course, we breathe a sigh of relief that Glen doesn’t end up stranded in Paris alone, and your kiddos will love exploring the city, coming up with solutions or options he might have tried and hypothesising what they might do in a similar situation.

Glen narrates his story simply, with some wonderful touches of humour and showing such resilience and bouyant optimism, that one can only be impressed. I love this book so much for both text and illos, and I am incredibly excited to be able to review a book from a Tiwi creator.

I am taking the opportunity to showcase it while we are marking Reconciliation Week but as you can see by the release date, it is not yet available so pre-order it now from Thames & Hudson because you won’t want to miss out. It gets a big 5 🥐🥐🥐🥐🗺️ rating from me for kiddos from around Year 2 upwards – even your big ones will enjoy this.