Just So Stories

Publisher: Fremantle Press

April 2026

ISBN: 9781760996482

RRP: $17.99

It is no secret that I love a great poetry book and, remarkably, after not having had one for review for quite some time, suddenly I have two stunning ones! The first is this absolute little cracker from Fremantle Press and a stellar cast of contributors. Here’s just a teaser of the creatives – it’s like a rollcall of W.A.’s finest! Meg McKinlay, Bren MacDibble, Helen Milroy, James Foley, Dianne Wolfer, Sally Murphy, Briony Stewart and SO MANY MORE.

And the wide variety of poems will make this a wonderful resource for your classroom/library program or just for the pure joy of it. Humorous poems, evocative poems of the ocean, shape poems, rhyming poems, free verse, haiku, tiny poems and long poems – this has it all and I gobble it up like a bag of lollies. SO good.

The whole is separated into sections loosely related: Livewires, In Full Swing, Off the Beaten Track and On Top of the World. Particular favourites for me are the ASCII Go-Bot (a found poem) – a code in Java script …so clever!!! J. P. Newman. And Ello-Mellow-Pee – think about it and see if you can work it out without even reading – by the multi-talented Briony Stewart. Also Bewitched – a delightful shape poem – from Suzette Teixeira. Young readers who enjoy poetry of all kinds will love this and it will also have so much to offer as a shared read for all kiddos from around Year 3 upwards. A bouyantly poetical 5 🌠🌠🌠🌠🌠rating.