Just So Stories

Random Reviews and Ramblings from Redcliffe

  • Inconvenient Women: Australian radical writers 1900–1970 – Jacqueline Kent

    UNSW Press 9781742237503 / May 2025 / RRP $34.99 You might guess that long extended adult reads do not happen all that often for me. I’m generally so snowed under reading kids lit that squeezing in the adult books is a mission – and usually reserved for the days at the beach while The Kid surfs or my occasional…

  • The Girl in the Painting – Dee White. Illustrated by Sarah Anthony.

    Walker Books Australia June 2025 ISBN13:9781760657444 Australia RRP:$26.99 New Zealand RRP:$28.99 Dee White is one of the most skilled creators I know – and, happily, I can call her my friend as well. Her talent, which ranges across dramatic middle grade novels to humorous narrative non-fiction, instructional primers for teachers and parents, magazine articles and…

  • Learning Country: a First Nations Journey Around Australia’s Traditional Place Names – Ryhia Dank

    Harper Collins Australia Ryhia Dank is a Gudanji/Wakaja woman who grew up in a remote community in the Gulf of Carpentaria. She got to know her Country though the stories her family told, and through walking in the places and footprints her family has travelled since the beginning. Her painting is storywork, and tells stories…

  • Desert Tracks -Marly Wells & Linda Wells

    Magabala Books May 2025 978-1-922777-66-9 RRP. $22.99 What an absolutely sensational book this is! Easy to see why it won the Daisy Utemorrah Award! And I’m going to say right now, this is one you not only need for your collection, but need to actively promote to your staff, especially those of you looking to…

  • On Gallant Wings – Helen Edwards

    Riveted Press April 2025 Distributed by Simon & Schuster ISBN13: 9781763526051 LIST PRICE: AU$ 17.99 / NZ$ 19.99 I can completely relate to author Helen Edward’s comment in her notes that she knew little about the Japanese attack on Darwin. I was certainly the same. Growing up in the late 50s/60s, I knew more about…

  • Blak ANZAC Day

    You are correct. I did say the blog was having a break until after ANZAC Day but when Big Sky Publishing sent me these which arrived today (16th) how could I not read and review them to mark ANZAC 2025. You might already have them or not but be well advised to do so, if…

  • The First Sunrise – Nessa Stevens. Paul Seder

    Magabala Books February 2025  9781922777553 | RRP $27.99 Hachette Australia I am always excited by First Nations books and I can’t think of a single one that hasn’t made me feel that way. But every now and then, one comes along that is really out of the box and this is one of those. There are a…

  • Tubowgule – a Sydney Opera House History – Melissa-Jane Fogarty. Illustrated by Dylan Finney.

    Hachette Australia Imprint: Lothian Books March 2025 9780734423351 | RRP $24.99 I’m old enough to have walked on Bennelong Point before the Opera House was built, and then walk around the construction site as the sails rose ever higher [not much WHS in those days, no fencing around the site!] picking up bits of broken white tile.…

  • Bold Ben Hall – Sophie Masson

    Walker Books March 2025 ISBN13:9781760658403 Australia RRP:$17.99 New Zealand RRP:$19.99 From the time I was a kid, I was fascinated with many of the stories of our bushrangers – lots of them recounted to me by my Father Bear. I think from memory it was in my tweens or maybe very early teens, when he…

  • Moonboy – Anna Ciddor

    Allen & Unwin March 2025 ISBN:9781761180743 Imprint:A & U Children RRP: $17.99 I love Anna Ciddor‘s historical time-slip adventures, and this newest one speaks to me even more because of personal connections. I was instantly transported back to First Form at St George Girls High School, and sitting with the rest of my cohort, squashed…