Just So Stories

Random Reviews and Ramblings from Redcliffe

  • Little Frida – Anthony Browne

    Walker Books April 2019 ISBN: 9781406381221 Imprint: Walker Australian RRP: $24.99 New Zealand RRP: $27.99 The absolutely mega-talented Anthony Browne brings his own distinctive style to the story of another fabulous artist, Frida Kahlo. This glorious picture book gives younger readers an insight into the background and artistic genesis of Kahlo who has, over the years, become an increasingly…

  • Taking Tom Murray Home – Tim Slee

    Harper Collins July 2019 ISBN: 9781460757864 ISBN 10: 1460757866 Imprint: HarperCollins – AU RRP $32.99 The inaugural Banjo Prize competition attracted 320 entries but it was Taking Tom Murray Home that took out the first prize with its truly authentic Australian voice. Tim Slee’s novel bristles with laconic wit, quirky characters and bitter-sweet emotions and underlines with eloquence…

  • The Curse of the School Rabbit – Judith Kerr

    Harper Collins July 2019 ISBN: 9780008352608 ISBN 10: 0008352607 Imprint: HarperCollins Children’sBooks   The late Judith Kerr’s final book, like all her glorious work, is quintessentially English, gently humorous and full of everyday adventure and family life. When Snowball the school rabbit needs to be rabbit-sat for a time, Tommy’s little sister, Angie, is ecstatic. Tommy is less…

  • Stuck in the Mud: Peski Kids #3 – R. A. Spratt

      Penguin Random House August 2019 ISBN: 9780143796350 Imprint: Puffin RRP: $16.99 The Peski kids have certainly encountered some bizarre events since their arrival in the backwater town of Currawong but perhaps the annual town Mud Run is one of the most strange – to their minds at least. Added to this is the even more repugnant…

  • Outback Wonder – Juliet M. Sampson

    Brolga Publishing 2017 ISBN: 9781925367935 RRP $19.99 Many of you will be familiar with Juliet’s recent picture book, Grace’s Mystery Seed, which has been widely praised and garnered considerable accolades – and rightly so. However you may not be so well acquainted with her earlier novels which have also been positively received. Outback Wonder is Juliet’s…

  • Toffee – Sarah Crossan

    Bloomsbury June 2019 9781526608147 Bloomsbury YA RRP $14.99 Exquisitely, compellingly poignant and haunting, I was so happy that I took this to the hairdresser’s yesterday. It meant I could read it one sitting without feeling guilty about neglected house chores! I am not who I say I am. Marla isn’t who she thinks she is.…

  • The Shelly Bay Ladies Swimming Circle – Sophie Green

    Hachette JUL 23, 2019 | 9780733641169 | RRP $29.99   If you missed The Inaugural Meeting of the Fairvale Ladies Book Club which was a runaway success a couple of years ago you must make certain not to neglect this new novel from Sophie Green! Once again readers become heavily invested in the lives of the main characters; Marie,…

  • Mercy Point – Anna Snoekstra

    Harper Collins June 2019 ISBN: 9781460709887 ISBN 10: 1460709888 RRP: $19.99 For so many the teen years are times of angst, struggling for self-identity and confidence and feeling that one ‘fits in’. For a group of five young people in the Blue Mountains it’s even more fraught as all of them suspect they may be adopted and…

  • To the Moon and Back – Bryan Sullivan with Jackie French

    Harper Collins May 2019 ISBN: 9781460757741 ISBN 10: 1460757742 Imprint: HarperCollins – AU RRP 16.99 AUD In our library we marked the 50th anniversary of the moon landing before the holidays and I was quite taken aback to find that not only did we not have a copy of this 2005 winner of the Eve Pownall Award but that…

  • The Good Thieves – Katherine Rundell

    Bloomsbury ISBN: 9781526608130 Imprint: Bloomsbury Children’s Books RRP $14.99 I have quickly become a fan of Katherine Rundell’s writing. After The Wolf Wilder and especially The Explorer (still the most visited blog post I’ve put up!) it would be hard to ignore such magical and adventurous narratives. Once again Katherine has put a group of…