Just So Stories

Allen & Unwin

September 2025

ISBN:9781761065095

Publisher:A&U Children’s

Imprint:A & U Children

To be honest, I know this series doesn’t need any talking up. The previous books and the enthusiasm with which they’ve been received speaks for them far more eloquently than I can. But just in case you’ve been incommunicado for some time, let me tell that this has been one of the most successful First Nations series for younger readers to date.

Each book takes on a different aspect of culture and delivers it in terms that our Smalls, whether mob or not, can not only understand but absorb and assimilate. Their boundaries of their own lives are expanded by virtue of the fact that they are learning about the lives of their peers from a different culture.

In this one, told from the perspective of the jarjum herself, the importance and significance of the Dreaming – Muda – is outlined. How this not only shapes the present for First Nations peoples but informs their knowledge of who they are, where they fit into their kinship and their nation, who their ancestors are and about their Country, and how to care for it.

The child, in her own personal dreams, sees herself exploring the Dreaming both past and present. It is just delightful and insightful, and I think this is my favourite to date because of this easy-to-grasp explanation of a concept that is nebulous and often mis-understood for many non-First Nations Australians. So, my advice, is have your adults read it as well!

Again, I can’t praise it highly enough. Adam and Ellie combine their knowledge and literary skills to provide a narrative that is exactly the right pitch and level of engagement for your younger kiddos. And David Hardy’s illos are in that distinctive cartoon-style which still conveys every sense of the ‘real’.

It’s another success story and I for one will be looking forward to more. Five bounding 🦘🦘🦘🦘🦘 for this one – it’s another must-have for your growing collection of cross-cultural perspective First Nations titles.