Just So Stories

Random Reviews and Ramblings from Redcliffe

  • The Silence that Binds Us – Joanna Ho

    Harper Collins Australia October 2022 Many of us fell in love with Joanna Ho’s exquisite writing with Eyes That Kiss in the Corners and Eyes That Speak to the Stars. Now it becomes apparent that her talent is not confined to lyrical picture books. This, her first YA novel, is searingly beautiful, poignant and powerful. Read more

  • January Winner!

    Congratulations Chloe!! My able assistant aka The Kid selected and you have won my Heartstopper prize! If you can let me know an email address we can work out delivery 🙂 Read more

  • Well, That Was Unexpected – Jesse Q. Sutanto

    Harper Collins Australia November 2022 In actual fact, this is hands down the most enjoyable YA novel I’ve read in a long time. Coincidentally, it is one of a posse of recent YAs that are Asian-focused in one way or another. Even more interesting perhaps is that it’s the second with an Indonesian setting I’ve Read more

  • Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile: the junior novelization – Bernard Waber

    Harper Collins Australia September 2022 To be perfectly honest, until the trailers for the movie came out, I had never really heard of this series, although I think I’ve had at least one of the picture books (the original one?) in my collection at some point. Maybe because sometimes American children’s books are eclipsed, for Read more

  • Friday Barnes 11: Last Chance – R. A. Spratt

    Penguin Australia Oh Friday, you just get betterer and betterer! Readers will remember my anecdote of the dismay felt by my coterie of Friday fans, when the ‘last’ in the (original) series was announced, and was confirmed by my (then) recent conversation with Rachel over afternoon tea. Subsequently – and by then in a different Read more

  • Signs of Survival: a memoir of the Holocaust – Renee Hartman with Joshua M. Greene

    Scholastic November 2021 RRP: $28.25 I found out about this book via Mighty Girl about a week ago and was so pleased that not only had my local library acquired it very recently but that it was available. I read it last night in one sitting (just over 100 pages is all) and, trust me, Read more

Archived Reviews