Just So Stories

Random Reviews and Ramblings from Redcliffe

  • ANZAC Day 2024

    I thought I’d put together a few ANZAC resources purely focused on the service of our First Nations men and women. I feel confident that most people would already have plenty of other books, activities, resources but perhaps not so many that focus on Blak Diggers. If you know of any others, I’d love to… Read more

  • The Sea Captain’s Wife – Jackie French

    Harper Collins Australia ISBN: 9781867243489 ISBN 10: 1867243482 Imprint: HQ Fiction AU $32.99 It really is a given, that a new Jackie French book means that all other books are put on hold (even if half-read!) until I have devoured the newest. And that’s exactly what has happened over the past few days. Just under 500 pages flew… Read more

  • Information Overload!

    Every now and then it happens. There’s been a gradual build-up on the review shelves, which I doggedly work through but then there’s a sudden rush of many parcels arriving (my postie and I are such good friends after him delivering to my last two houses!), and things go completely catawampus. So despite all my… Read more

  • I Hear a Buho – Raquel MacKay/Armando Fonseca

    Scribble April 2024 ISBN: 9781957363653 RRP: $24.99 Given we have done a little bit of learning Spanish here over the last couple of years, I was well pleased to know that I could not only pronounce all the español in this striking picture book but could understand it. Hurra! This a quite simple rhyming picture… Read more

  • Dinosaur in my Pocket – Ashleigh Barton & Blithe Fielden

    Hachette Imprint: Lothian Children’s Books MARCH 2024 | 9780734422668 | RRP $24.99 There are many of us, young as well as old, who love miniatures. I once had a dollhouse as an adult and was, piece by piece, acquiring miniature ‘antiques’ to furnish it. You only need to look at the feeding frenzy the supermarket miniatures create to know… Read more

  • Countdown to Yesterday – Shirley Marr

    Penguin Australia January 2024 ISBN: 9781761340598 Imprint: Puffin $16.99 I love Shirley Marr’s description of herself ‘as having a Western Mind and an Eastern Heart‘, and the success of her books for middle grade readers that explore the experiences of children living in this mix of cultures is self-evident. Her narratives not only speak to the children… Read more

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