Just So Stories

Penguin Australia

• ISBN: 9781761352812
• Imprint: Puffin
• RRP: $19.99

Close enough to include it in my picture books, this is the stand-out episode that many kids will have seen, and now they can read it as well. In the cutest graphic novel format, find out what happens when the For Sale goes up in the front yard of the Heelers’ place.

Bluey, Bingo and the cousins think that if they take the sign down, then nobody will buy the house. They don’t realise it doesn’t work like that. They could really use Frisky’s help getting that big sign out of the ground but then she takes off, saying the whole wedding is off because she is NOT going to move out west with Uncle Rad.

With the whole ‘good luck/bad luck’ trope running throughout, kids will easily relate to this . There will be those who have moved house for sure, but there will also be those who are agitated by any kind of change. What a great opportunity to talk out those anxieties and to point out, just as Calypso does, that everything will work out the way that’s meant to be.

It’s a really accessible chapter book for those kids just spreading their reading independence wings, as the comic strip styling and the illustrations really support those who are treading this road in the early stages. As I’ve said before, what an enormous success story Bluey has been, and how proud we are that this Brisbane venture has taken the city and the state to such heights around the world.

This is a fabulous hardback edition with raised accents on the cover including the title in gold – swanky! And what a perfect stocking stuffer it would make! Kiddos from around Year 1-3 will lap it up and it gets a top breed 5 🐕🐕🐕🐕🐕rating.