Just So Stories

Random Reviews and Ramblings from Redcliffe

  • Weirdosaurus – Philip Bunting

    Pre-history’s Most Peculiar Creatures Hardie Grant Australia September 2025 ISBN:9781761214 Price:AU$29.99, NZ$34.99 Publisher:Hardie Grant Children’s Publishing Here are some words from the publisher and the author to describe this hilarious but extremely informative book: playful, humour, witty jokes, funny anecdotes, and fabulous facts. But as it’s Philip Bunting, you would have worked that out without Read more

  • Picture Book Month Bonus: Rory Sparkes and the Elephant in the Room – Hugh Bonneville

    Bloomsbury Australia October 2025 ISBN 9781526685957 Imprint Bloomsbury Children’s Books RRP: $17.99 Most people would know that I’m very wary of books by ‘celebrity’ authors but I am always willing to take a punt when a) I know that it is the person themselves that has written it (or that their collaborator/ghost writer is clearly Read more

  • Being Indy – Zoe Gaetjens. Illustrated by Estee Sarsfield

    Westwords October 2025 RRP $29.95 ISBN: 9781923044517 This is another intriguing and very different title from Westwords, and another that can be described as a fable. This a timeless narrative about one’s internal desire to fit in and be accepted, and the lengths to which some will go to do so. I love these opening Read more

  • My Friend May – Julie Flett

    New South Books Greystone Kids June 2025 ISBN 9781778401718 RRP: 29.99 How can I not absolutely love this one? Based on a true story and about a little girl and her friend, her black cat May, my first thought was of The Kid and Whiskers aka The Demon Spawn. This pair has been together for Read more

  • The Friendship Book – Zanni Louise

    Walker Books Australia November 2025 ISBN13:9781760658106 Australia RRP:$24.99 New Zealand RRP:$27.99 Zanni has been very busy this year! And here is yet another of her new releases (another one is coming up in review shortly). I don’t know about you but for me this time of year would always see me planning for the following Read more

  • Finding Alfie: a D-Day Story – Michael Morpurgo. Michael Foreman.

    Scholastic Australia May 2025 ISBN: 9780702325205 ISBN-10: 0702325201 RRP: $29.95 When I got this it, I decided to save it for Rembrance Day, as the timing from my point of view wasn’t right for the D-Day events. But what a superb book it is, as one would expect from these two literary legends. I have said before Read more

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