Just So Stories

Penguin Australia

• 4October 2025
• ISBN: 9781761353376
• Imprint: Puffin
• RRP: $19.99

So in the tiny board book Hooray Presents! we saw Bluey get a mini Heeler toy. Meet Bartlebee! Bluey is enchanted with this new friend and hurls him straight into all the family Christmas shenanigans including Classic Catches in the pool and being licked ‘hello’ by Socks.

Bartlebee is baffled to say the least. This is not what he was expecting clearly. And he certainly was not expecting to be chomped by a crocodile or have his arm broken. But godmother Aunt Frisky understands as she’s pretty new to the family antic as well and knows very well it can all get a bit cray-cray.

So instead of going back to his box to sit all the games out, Bartlebee decides to give it all another go. Bingo uses her new doctor’s kit to fix his arm, he learns to play classic catches and even catches the ferry with Muffin successfully. It’s a shame he falls face-first into the gravy when Dad pats his back a little too enthusiastically over lunch, but it’s ok. It’s family. It’s love. And it’s Christmas.

It’s another lively one – probably for your slightly older Smalls so around 3/4 up to 6/7 but still a lot of typical warm Bluey fun. This one has a load of bonus material with stickers, jigsaw, decorations, a card and more tucked away in ‘envelope’ pages – nicely interactive for those older ones. Another 4 🐕🐕🐕🐕 for this one.