Just So Stories

Random Reviews and Ramblings from Redcliffe

  • Cassowary Dad – Beverley McWilliams. Illustrated by Julian Teh.

    CSIRO Publishing February 2025 ISBN: 9781486317578  $26.99 To kick off the week of birds [yes intentional!], and so close to Fathers Day, what better choice than our own Queenslander and largest of the cassowary species – the Southern Cassowary, daddy extraordinaire! You know it’s top shelf when it comes from the CSIRO, and Beverley McWilliams…

  • My Dog – Olivia Wakeford

    the story of an extraordinary friendship Harper Collins Australia ISBN: 9780008658588 ISBN 10: 0008658587 Imprint: HarperCollins GB RRP: $17.99 This one I will say was at times, a bit too close to the bone for me. That being said, it is truly a special book that will touch the hearts of sophisticated primary readers and, I would suggest,…

  • Little Bee’s Year of Blooms – Sarah Jane Lightfoot

    I’ve had quite a few board books come my way this year and truly they’ve all been lovely but this one is the pièce de résistance with its sculptured pages and combination of plants and insects. I hadn’t seen any of Sarah Jane Lightfoot’s books before but if this one is any indication, they must…

  • Hedgehog or Echidna? – Ashleigh Barton and Amandine Thomas

    Hachette July 2025  9780734422682 | RRP $24.99 There are lots of ‘look-alike’ critters in the animal kingdom and your readers will take great delight in this book which looks at many of those. The lively rhyming text will engage them and, of course, enable some prediction as you or they read. And the fruitful discussions that can…

  • Happy Anniversary Tashi!! Tashi 30th Anniversary Edition – Anna Fienberg, Barbara Fienberg, Kim Gamble

    Allen & Unwin July 2025 ISBN:9781761181450 Publisher: &U Children’s Imprint: A & U Children Thirty years and over 100 millions of sales on, Tashi is every bit as entertaining, clever, funny and brave as he ever was. I can still recall how enchanted I was on first meeting him, and knowing that the kiddos in…

  • Inspiring Minds Magazine

    It’s quite new and I predict it’s going to take off. Check it out if you haven’t yet seen it. It’s for kids and invites kids to submit content – so a really good authentic writing opportunity for your kiddos.  All online and FREE – check it out. I’ll be doing a regular column and I…

  • Because it’s Book Week…

    There are not so many days I miss being full-time in my libraries but, yes, Book Week with the insane preparations and the fun of dressing up [at one of my schools a different costume every day of the week!] has been one in the last couple of years. But honestly, this year I’ve been…

  • Britannica All New Children’s Encyclopedia

    What We Know and What We Don’t Walker Books September 2025 Imprint: Britannica Books ISBN13: 9781804661499 Australia RRP: $64.99 New Zealand RRP: $67.99 Last year I reviewed another of Christopher Lloyd’s amazing fat-as-mud books of EVERYTHING and it was just great. This is an updated edition of the Children’s Brittanica which went totally gangbusters on…

  • Lexie Moon & the Space Day Disaster – Melissa Garside and Lauren Mullinder

    Riveted Press August 2025 Distributed by Simon & Schuster ISBN13: 9781764007115 RRP: AU$ 12.99 / NZ$ 14.99 I’m quite sure that your young readers, those who are just starting to gobble up chapter books, will have really enjoyed the first Lexie Moon adventure. This is a great series for those kiddos just hitting their straps…

  • Hannah Backwards – Kim Rackham

    I think this is very possibly the first verse novel for younger readers I’ve come across to review, and I think it will be very popular with many of them. Much of the action in this narrative is eminently relatable to many kiddos. The worries that beset them, the losses they meet with, making mistakes…