Just So Stories

Random Reviews and Ramblings from Redcliffe

  • Beijing Tai Tai – Tania McCartney

    Exisle Publishing 2012 ISBN: 9781921966156 RRP: $14.99 I first met Tania when she came to my Canberra school as our author guest around ten years ago, and she and I just clicked from the first moment we spoke to each other. Since then it has been my honour and pleasure to be her friend. I…

  • Round the Twist – Paul Jennings

    Penguin Australia February 2022 ISBN: 9780140342130 Imprint: Puffin RRP: $14.99 I was saying to someone just yesterday that, in our pursuit to promote new books, we sometimes forget that back catalogue titles also demand to be shared as each new crop of readers comes along. I am acquainted with so many young adults (that is, anyone younger than…

  • Piano Fingers – Caroline Magerl

    Walker Books March 2022 ISBN: 9781760652616Imprint: Walker Books AustraliaAustralian RRP: $26.99New Zealand RRP: $28.99 I have been watching the development of this truly beautiful book for around two years; from the very first balsa wood model, that was to inform the illustrations of the piano, to endearing portraits of the original subject with her little red corduroy shoes, to…

  • Sticky McStickStick: the Friend who Helped me Walk Again – Michael Rosen

    Walker Books February 2022 ISBN: 9781529502404Imprint: Walker Australian RRP: $27.99New Zealand RRP: $29.99 When I first read about Michael Rosen’s near-death Covid episode, I found it incredibly moving as this man is one of my most admired creators of children’s literature. Then I read, and shared, his article thanking Sticky McStickStick, and knew for certain that this was a…

  • Friday Barnes #10: Undercover – R. A. Spratt

    Penguin Australia February 2022 ISBN: 9781761043659 Imprint: Puffin RRP: $15.99 Some readers of this blog may recall my review of the ‘re-appearance’ of Friday and her cronies. My kiddos at school lost their minds when it hit the shelves so make sure you stand back again because the rush will be on. Now that Friday et al are…

  • Young Oracle Tarot

    I’m away up the coast so the Kid can have her surf lesson from last birthday but check out my review of this fab Book on KBR now.

  • Not a Book Review!

    We all know the last two years have, at times, been quite fraught and definitely frustrating. The Kid and I had a trip to Thailand that buckled in the first few months of Covid (still waiting on perhaps some refund from Thai Airways after them going belly-up) ……..our usual annual trip to NSW to visit…

  • Mr. Men [Little Miss] in Australia – Roger Hargreaves

    Penguin Australia November 2021 ISBN: 9781761044342 Imprint: Mr Men RRP: $16.99 These characters are so enduring and still so well-loved fifty years after their creation, that this book will make a fun addition to your collection and, indeed, to your classroom unit on Australia, if you are building up a solid title list for that purpose. The gang…

  • Macquarie Junior Atlas of Indigenous Australia

    My review of this spectcular new teaching & learning resource is live now at Kids Book Review – do NOT miss it!

  • Back to School – or not, as the case may be…

    So I’ve had these ones for a while but thought they would be more usefully timed for the start of the school year so was going to post them next week as Queensland schools were due to resume on 24th January. That was the case right up to a few hours ago when the growing…