Just So Stories

Random Reviews and Ramblings from Redcliffe

  • Women Artists A to Z – Melanie LaBarge. Illustrated by Caroline Corrigan

    Penguin Random House Australia February 2020 ISBN 9783760896357 Imprint: Puffin RRP $24.99 No matter if you are looking for something biographical and ‘easy’ or as an introduction to outstanding and diverse artists or to supplement your Mighty Girl collection this is a very welcome addition. These are the women who, in each of their disciplines,…

  • Freefall:  Kensy & Max #5 –– Jacqueline Harvey

    Published: 3 March 2020 ISBN: 9780143796985 Imprint: Puffin RRP: $16.99   Hold onto your seats for another major adrenalin rush in this new top-notch adventure of twins Kensy and Max, young agents-in-training! In this latest episode there is a continuing thread from the previous book in which a thoroughly evil villain was unmasked. The outwardly charming Dash Chalmers has…

  • Student Volunteers…

    Student librarians, library trainees, call them what you will… I call them Library Ninjas and thought I might as well add this program since it’s also available elsewhere. Like anything and everything else, it is a starting point as your library, it’s facilities and your needs will be different to my own. Library ninjas have…

  • Library Lovers Day 2020

    In my new library we’re giving LLD a big rev – a bit of a twist on blind date books with just a quote or tag line on the heart doily glued to the paper bag cover- I put the display together this morning and my keen beans have already snaffled three books (plenty in…

  • Another Orientation activity

    Thank you so much to the wonderful Jill Duffield, now happily retired, for sharing this activity. While obviously some of this would be out-dated by now and certainly does not reflect individual libraries, I can already see ways to take this structure and transform it for my ‘beefier’ follow-up sessions with Year 7s. Answers Race…

  • League of Llamas – Aleesah Darlison

    Visit Aleesah’s webpage here   Penguin March 2020 RRP: $9.99   Well… Aleesah’s new series is bound to be a hit with junior/middle primary readers with galloping (I’m not sure llamas actually gallop but still…) plots, high octane humour and loads of adventure. I knew that James Bond is currently having a contemporised make over but…

  • Year 7 Library Intro activity

    2020Chase Welcome to the Chase Two different versions (for two different schools/libraries). Attached are both copies – you would need to adjust depending on your own library of course. But the students found it a lot of fun – there was some quite fierce competition – and lolly prizes which always help! Just be prepared…

  • The Long Distance  Playlist – Tara Eglington

    Harper Collins Australia January 2020 ISBN: 9781460755211 ISBN 10: 1460755219 Imprint: HarperCollins – AU RRP: $19.99 Well if you told me I would absolutely fall in love with a YA (primarily) romantic novel I would no doubt have scoffed loudly. However, this is just delightful and so so much more than just romance. Eglington explores contemporary culture, family…

  • Peppa Pig: Where’s Peppa’s Magical Unicorn?

    a lift-the-flap book February 2020 ISBN: 9780241412046 Imprint: Ladybird Format: Board Book RRP: $14.99 Peppa’s popularity shows no signs of diminishing any time soon and with the range of books for tiny readers that are emerging her little fans will continue to adore her small adventures.  With unicorns being so hot at the moment this is surely a winning…

  • Will the Wonderkid: Treasure Hunter of the Australian Outback – Stephanie Owen Reeder

      National Library of  Australia February 2020 ISBN:   9780642279521 RRP: $24.99 I adore this series! In Heritage Heroes, Reeder not only takes her readers on adventures but provides rich fodder for hunters of history. Each volume has explored the (often unknown) achievements of young Australian people of the past in a fictionalised narrative which is lavishly…