Just So Stories

Random Reviews and Ramblings from Redcliffe

  • Amira Swift: #1Talent Show, #1 Fair Day Fun – Sarah Ayoub. Nina Nill.

    Harper Collins Australia Imprint: HarperCollins AU July 2026 Series: Amira Swift RRP: $15.99 Classroom Resource Talent Show ISBN: 9781460766675 Fair Day Fun ISBN: 9781460766682 And here comes another new series for your younger readers who, I predict, will fall in love with Amira, her family and her friends along with her everyday adventures. This is just delightful as it… Read more

  • Bandoola: an elephant’s story – Beverley McWilliams

    UWA Publishing Simon & Schuster July 2026 ISBN13: 9781760803377 LIST PRICE: AU$ 17.99 / NZ$ 20.99 Your middle grade readers, particularly the animal lovers or indeed the historical fiction lovers, will lap this one up. Inspired by a true story of an amazing rescue during WWII in Burma, now Myanmar, this is an elephant story… Read more

  • Edwina the Emu : 30th Anniversary Edition : Sheena Knowles/Rod Clement.

    Harper Collins Australia July 2026 ISBN: 9781460769591 ISBN-10: 1460769597 RRP: $24.99 Yes indeed, another anniversary edition that makes me think OH MY! it’s been that long I’ve been a librarian!! And another book that so many of us have read dozens of times, now coming to an entirely new audience and generation. With it’s absolutely perfect rhyme… Read more

  • The Adventures of Squidape – John Stanton

    Riveted Press Simon & Schuster July 2026 ISBN13: 9781923676046 LIST PRICE: AU$ 17.99 / NZ$ 19.99 When you read a debut novel that is not only hugely enjoyable but written by a fellow school librarian – it’s YAYYY!! This one is (strange as it may seem still) one of the several read in the past… Read more

  • Animalia: 40th Anniversary – Graeme Base

    Penguin Australia September 2026 It’s a big year for anniversary editions – it seems so many have come along in 2026 – but I doubt there will be any bigger, bolder, bluer or shinier than this absolutely glorious foiled collector’s edition of Animalia. Forty years old!!! What the…?? I can hardly believe it and it… Read more

  • The Lost Island – Samantha Wheeler. Illustrated by Anke Noack.

    UQP August 2026 ISBN: 9780702271182 RRP: $17.99 We can always depend on Samantha Wheeler, on of our local authors, to deliver an engaging and thoughtful middle grade novel. Her ability to create characters to whom readers gravitate and put them into situations that enable those readers to explore emotions, attitudes and problem-solving has been amply… Read more

Archived Reviews