Just So Stories

Yucky, icky and utterly hilarious, take a deep dive into the bizarre and disgusting world of animal facts with vet Dr Claire and her cute dog Frankie!

Harper Collins Australia

March 2026

• ISBN: 9781460766064
• ISBN 10: 1460766067
• Imprint: HarperCollins AU
• List Price: 26.99 AUD

Although I didn’t know her name, I’m sure many others will know of or have seen Dr Claire Stevens, vet/presenter/author who has turned her hand from her more serious writing to this extremely funny but also very informative non-fiction book with a twist for young readers.

We all know that kiddos love anything gross. In fact, generally speaking, the grosser the better, so this is definitely going to tick a lot of boxes. It will make the animal enthusiasts very happy. It will also have those who love some eeeeuuuw-style humour cackling. And for the ones who really just want to groan and roll their eyes with a ‘Oh, that’s just GROSS!’, it will be an enormous hit.

The information is presented in such an engaging and accessible way that even your reluctant or not-so-confident readers will be eager to dip in and out of the chunked texts, sidebars, speech bubbles and fun facts. At the same time, readers will absorb a wealth of new vocabulary including scientific and subject specific terminology, with ample expansion of tricky words where needed.

The whole is accompanied by Adele’s hugely comical and colourful cartoons which, again, will have your readers chortling at even those animals who are relishing a bit of carcass or poop for their munchies. These critters, with their expressions, leave the reader with no doubts about their feelings towards their choice of delicious disgusting degustation!

I have to say I had a lot of fun putting together some ideas for the discussion notes for this one and fully endorse its value as either a class read-aloud, a companion title for units on animals/wildlife or as a readers’ circle choice. It’s definitely a 5 😂💩🤢🤮😬 rating for readers from around 7 years up to around 12.