Just So Stories

Random Reviews and Ramblings from Redcliffe

  • The Fighting Stingrays – Simon Mitchell

    Penguin Random House 9780143784104 July 31, 2017 Puffin (AU YR) RRP $17.99 This is, in old parlance, a ripping yarn – a real Boys’ Own adventure. Charlie, Alf and Masa are the best of mates who go to school together, fish, swim and most of all are ‘The Fighting Stingrays’ determined to beat all imaginary…

  • Never Say Die – Alex Rider

    Walker Books Australia ISBN: 9781406377040 June 1, 2017 Australian RRP: $16.99 New Zealand RRP: $18.99 How absolutely apt that as we mourn the loss of the suavest Bond of them all – vale Sir Roger Moore – the new Alex Rider explodes into our reading lives with every bit of excitement that we have come to anticipate from…

  • Bronze Bird Tower: Dragonkeeper #6 – Carole Wilkinson

    Walker Books ISBN: 9781925381412 Imprint: Black Dog Books March 2017 Australian RRP: $24.99 In 2002 Carole Wilkinson introduced us to a small downtrodden Chinese girl with no name and a marvellous world of beautiful, mysterious and terrible dragons. Set in ancient China where dragon hunters and warring feudal lords, oppression of the miserable poor and contemptuous dismissal of…

  • The Dragon with a Chocolate Heart: Stephanie Burgis. Illustrated by Freya Harris

    Bloomsbury March 2017 ISBN 9781408880319 RRP $14.99   It’s often not easy being the youngest in the family particularly when your older siblings are considered by all to be brilliant and talented. Arguably it’s even harder to be the baby of a dragon family without the hardened scales or working wings that would allow you…

  • RFDS Adventures #4 & #5 – George Ivanoff

      Fast Flight (RFDS #4) Random House Australia ISBN: 9780857988829 Published: 02/05/2016 Imprint: Random House Australia Children’s RRP $14.99   Young Dillon is pretty much like any other boy of his age. He loves his cricket, his room is always pretty messy and he likes hanging with his best mate Jay. Pretty much the only thing that sets…

  • Mrs Whitlam – Bruce Pascoe

    Magabala Books Author: Bruce Pascoe Published: Jun 2016 ISBN: 9781925360240 Ages: Middle primary, Upper primary, Young Adult   I am very quickly becoming very enamoured of Bruce Pascoe’s writing for young people (not to mention for adults). He is really deft at making his young adult characters believable and contemporary without relying on current vernacular…

  • Ollie’s Odyssey – William Joyce

      Simon & Schuster Australia Atheneum/Caitlyn Dlouhy Books 304 pages ISBN 9781442473553 April 2016 RRP $27.99   This is a Hans Christian Andersen-style tale of magic and wonder that echoes of the same tenderness as works such as The Velveteen Rabbit. When Billy is just a baby he has a problem with his heart which…

  • Middle School: Going Bush –James Patterson

    ISBN: 9780143781219 Published: 01/03/2016 Imprint: Random House Australia Children’s RRP $15.99 Rafe can’t be more excited. He’s been selected to join a very special Young Artists group along with a very select few youngsters from around the world. They are all to meet up in Australia and take part in an extraordinary all-expenses paid experience investigating ancient Indigenous…

  • Goblin Mafia Wars [City of Monsters #2] – DC Green

    Ford St Publishing April 2016 ISBN 9781925272208 RRP $18.95 You would think that as a royal hume dude your life would be one of complete luxury not to mention stressfree. Think again! PT (Prince Thomas of Monstro City) and his Dead Gang friends are embroiled even deeper in nasty situations and deadly – or is…

  • The Selected Adventures of Bottersnikes and Gumbles

    by S A Wakefield illustrated by Desmond Digby   ISBN: 9781460751923 ISBN 10: 1460751922 Imprint: HarperCollins – AU On Sale: 01/01/2016 Pages: 224 List Price: 14.99 AUD   I think I have lost count of how many times over the years as both a classroom teacher and a teacher-librarian I have shared S. A. Wakefield’s classic stories about the Bottersnikes and Gumbles. I…