Just So Stories

Walker Books Australia

April 2025

ISBN13:9781760657673

Australia RRP:$25.99

New Zealand RRP:$27.99

In the shade of the gobi trees on the edge of Pincer Sea,
live a family of Finlocks as peaceful as can be.
They lomf and fish and fish and eat and hope that they will never meet …
the Frimbulitic Terrakeet!

From narrative-nonfiction to classics to humour to adventure to nonsense, it’s a sea of choices for our Smalls. This one is mostly nonsense, but with underlying themes of friendship, courage and not being judgemental (especially based on hearsay).

With its rythmic rhymes and outlandish words, kiddos will love hearing this read aloud, and also love having a go themselves, getting their tongue around words like smorgish and galumphing [the latter, of course, is a very normal word – just not commonly used. I used it myself just last week in my exercise class for a bit of fun].

There are definite echoes of Lewis Carroll and Roald Dahl as the youngest Finlock goes further afield than his family has ever dared, in search of nourishment, their usual supply of fronds being too elusive to be caught. He even dares to go Beyond, where the legendary fearsome beastie, the Terrakeet is reputed to live.

But what is this? The Terrakeet is far more parakeet than terrible ogre – just over-sized and, not only that, but disabled with only one wing, which means he can certainly never fly – though, to be fair, going by size alone, he very likely would be flightless in any case.

Actually, when the youngest Finlock takes the gentle and generous Terrakeet back to meet his family, they all realise they’ve been too ready to repeat unfounded stories about the so-called monster.

Realistically, this sounds like a book we should promote to some people in the community who do exactly the same thing, with far more dire outcomes.

It’s not only a fun read but will offer up the opportunity to empower Smalls to do just that – don’t just simply believe everything you hear! I’m giving it a 4 🏝️🏝️🏝️🏝️rating for Smalls from around Prep up to Year 3/4.