Just So Stories

Random Reviews and Ramblings from Redcliffe

  • 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…