Just So Stories

Random Reviews and Ramblings from Redcliffe

  • This Drop of Water – Stef Gemmill. Illustrated by Mel Armstrong.

    CSIRO Publishing New South Books 9781486319916/ November 2026/Hardback/GEN/AUD$26.99, NZD$32.99 Here’s another great one to add to your teaching tool kit. Those inevitable water cycle units can always use a burst of freshness can’t they? And Stef Gemmil’s narrative of a single drop’s journey around the cycle makes the learning a bit of fun as well… Read more

  • Last Bat of the Night – David Gullan. Samantha Metcalfe

    CSIRO Publishing Hardback | August 2026 ISBN: 9781486318728 RRP: AUD$26.99, NZD$32.99 [hardback available at New South Publishing] If you live in a place where the bats stream across the evening sky, you will know exactly the thrill of this. Some children will also make connections, others may not know this excitement. But this beautiful book… Read more

  • Racing Puffing Billy- Corinne Fenton/Mark Wilson

    Windy Hollow Books Walker Books August 2026 ISBN13:9781922998279 Australia RRP:$29.99 New Zealand RRP:$34.99 I love trains. It’s been some time since I’ve been on a properly exciting train journey but I do love them. As I write this review, I’m also watching a documentary on the 100th anniversary of the Flying Scotsman, as it happens.… Read more

  • Picture Book Bonus: Gallipoli – Dawn of the ANZAC Spirit: Australia Remembers #7 – Tom Lewis

    Little Big Sky May 2026 ISBN13: 9781923514324 LIST PRICE: AU$ 24.99 / NZ$ 28.99 While this one was sent to me in late April, it arrived too late for ANZAC Day [and didn’t make it to my Blak ANZACs post with titles also from Big Sky], so I decided it would be better kept for… Read more

  • The Everywhere Train- Deborah Frenkel. Danny Snell

    Hardie Grant Publishing September 2026 9781761213953 $24.99 Unless you were under a rock or incapacitated in some way, you could not have missed the sensation that was The Truck Cat. What a hugely popular choice it was for NSS as well. Now from that same great pairing is this absolutely beautiful book that allows children… Read more

  • The Magic School Bus Inside the Human Body – Joanna Cole and Bruce Degen

    Celebrating 40 years of The Magic School Bus Scholastic Australia ISBN: 9781761818592 ISBN-10: 1761818597 Series: Magic School Bus November 2026 RRP: $19.99 Kicking off today’s batch of PBs featuring ‘things that go’ it’s another anniversary edition to make us all go – oh wow! 40 years?! And has there ever been a more iconic, well-loved… Read more

Archived Reviews