Just So Stories

Random Reviews and Ramblings from Redcliffe

  • Windswept & Interesting: my autobiography – Sir Billy Connolly

    Hachette Australia OCT 12, 2021 | 9781529318265 | RRP $49.99 One might think that after so much has been written and shared about hi, that the man himself would not have much more to add, but not so. Because aside from the recollections and anecdotes, it is Billy’s innate gleeful humour that lifts this beyond straight autobiography to become…

  • Funny Kid Prank Ninjas [Funny Kid #10] – Matt Stanton

    Harper Collins September 2021 ISBN: 9780733340628 ISBN 10: 0733340628 Imprint: ABC Books AU List Price: 14.99 AUD I freely admit it. I’m not a huge fan of the many comic mega-series. They always seem to me to be very formulaic and same-same BUT I never find that in Matt’s books. Each Funny Kid I have read has provided delicious…

  • Girls Change the Game – Gabrielle Gloury/Michael Hyde

    Ford St Publishing April 2020 ISBN: 9781925804492 RRP: $14.99 Although the women’s version of Aussie Rules has been around since the early 20th century with regular competitions and state leagues being established over the years it wasn’t until 2017 that women’s AFL first became professionalised at a national level. Now with more 2 million viewers/followers,…

  • No Hearts of Gold – Jackie French

    Harper Collins December 2021 ISBN: 9781460757925 ISBN 10: 1460757920 Imprint: HarperCollins AU List Price: 29.99 AUD If you’ve read this blog before no doubt, you have noticed my immense admiration for the talent of Jackie French and, in particular, her outstanding historical fiction. Her seemingly effortless recreation of the past always has the power to transport the reader into…

  • Pony – R. J. Palacio

    My review of this utterly fabulous book is now live at Kids Book Review – check it out and make sure you get a copy – you won’t be sorry!

  • Ten Minutes to Bed: Little Unicorn’s Christmas – Rhiannon Fielding/Chris Chatterton

    Penguin Australia November 2021 ISBN: 9780241489901 Imprint: Ladybird Format: Board Book RRP: $14.99 This series of bedtime books has been outrageously popular with little people everywhere – not to mention their adults who are the ones doing those repeated nightly readings! If you’re going to be on a perpetual looping playlist you want to be reading something you…

  • Banjo Tully – Justin D’Ath

    Ford St Publishing September 2021 ISBN: 9781925804904 RRP: $17.95 It was a hair salon day and as usual, I took a book with me – one I’d only unpacked from its box this morning – although I have some others still half-read, because I always love Justin’s writing. And this was no exception – I…

  • Harry Potter-ween!!

    So of course the piece de resistance of any batch of books, particularly at Halloween, is new HP ones and these two are absolute corkers!!! Bloomsbury Australia Harry Potter – Magical Creatures: a movie scrapbook Warner Bros September 2021 ISBN 9781526644299 Imprint Bloomsbury Children’s Books RRP: $29.99 Any HP fan would love this and if…

  • The Supernatural Survival Guide – George Ivanoff

    Penguin Australia September 2021 ISBN: 9781761043635 Imprint: Puffin RRP: $24.99 Here is the third in George’s Survival Guides and it’s not just in our house that each has been so anticipated. This one is totally going to tick boxes for a lot of your readers – and dare I say it, the geeky, the preppers, the curious, the…

  • There’s a Ghost in this House – Oliver Jeffers

    Harper Collins Australia October 2021 ISBN: 9780008298357 ISBN 10: 0008298351 Imprint: HarperCollins GB List Price: 29.99 AUD Without doubt books for young readers which invite the children to become part of the whole experience of text and illustrations are far and away the most popular in any setting, in my experience – just think, Herve Tullet, Beck & Matt…