Just So Stories

Random Reviews and Ramblings from Redcliffe

  • The Giant’s Necklace – Michael Morpurgo. Illustrated by Briony May Smith

    Walker Books Australia ISBN: 9781406357127 Imprint: WALKER HARDBACK Australian RRP: $19.99 New Zealand RRP: $22.99 Coming hot on the heels of my review of Michael’s ‘Such Stuff’ is this absolutely beautiful short story/novella which is both poignant and thrilling.  And of course, now I also want to know the ‘prompt’ for this particular story. A family is on their Read more

  • Spark – Adam Wallace/Andrew Plant

    Ford St Publishing ISBN: 9781925272406 (HC) 9781925272413 (PB) Publication date: October 2016 (HC) March 2017 (PB) Price: AUD $24.95 “Adam Wallace was 11 years old when the Ash Wednesday bushfires threatened his home. Forced to leave with his grandmother, no car and a budgie in a cage, it was only a wind change that saved Read more

  • The Adventures of Pipi the Pink Monkey – Carlo Collodi. Retold and expanded by  Alessandro Gallenzi and illustrated by Axel Scheffler.

    Bloomsbury Publishing Australia Alma Classics ISBN 9781847495594 RRP $19.99 July 2016   What’s that I hear you ask? Carlo Collodi? You mean the Italian guy who wrote Pinocchio? Yep, that’s the one I mean. And no, I didn’t know he wrote anything else either! By the way, if you have never read the original story Read more

  • Willy and the Cloud – Anthony Browne

    Walker Books Australia ISBN: 9781406366969 Imprint: WALKER HARDBACK Release Date: October 1, 2016 Australian RRP: $24.99 Once again, one of my very favourite author/illustrators the immensely talented Anthony Browne takes a serious topic and transforms it into a sophisticated picture book that will be a perfect springboard for discussion with young readers. Willy the chimp has taken us all Read more

  • Geis: A Matter of Life & Death – Alexis Deacon

    Walker Books Australia ISBN: 9781910620038 Imprint: NB NOBROW Release Date: September 1, 2016 Australian RRP: $29.99 New Zealand RRP: $32.99 geis f ‎(genitive singular geise, nominative plural geasa) a solemninjunction, especially of a magical kind, the infringement of which led to misfortune or even death atabu, spell or prohibition https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/geis This is going to tick a lot of boxes for quite a number of your readers. Firstly, it Read more

  • Black – Fleur Ferris

    ISBN 9781925324976 June  2016 Random House Australia Children’s $19.99   Fleur Ferris certainly has a knack for creating really intense and gripping narratives.  Those who loved Risk will really eat this one up. Ebony Marshall is known to all in her town as Black – not just because of her name but because the majority Read more

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