Just So Stories

Random Reviews and Ramblings from Redcliffe

  • Sophie Someone – Hayley Long

    Allen & Unwin ISBN 9781471404894 Publisher: Bonnier Imprint: Hotkey Pub Date: June 2016 RRP $16.99 When Sophie was very young, around 4 or 5, she and her mother undertook a very hurried and confusing trip to Belgium. Sophie can clearly remember her mother tearing up their passports and stuffing them in a bin upon their…

  • Three – Justin D’Ath

    Ford St Publishing April 2016 ISBN: 9781925272277 Justin D’Ath seems to have a real gift for exciting adventure stories with tremendous appeal to both boys and girls. This novel is like a blockbuster thriller movie but for young readers and is just fabulous. Sunday or Sunny suspects nothing more than the usual school assembly as he…

  • The Truth According to Arthur: a funny book about fibbing –  Tim Hopgood/David Tazzyman

    Allen & Unwin July 2016 ISBN 9781408864999 Publisher:Bloomsbury Imprint:Bloomsbury Child RRP $14.99   A perfect book for a read-aloud that will gently point out that lying is not just a no-no but will also lead to a great discussion on ethics for young readers. Arthur breaks a rule. He is not to ride his brother’s…

  • 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…

  • Popcorn Movie Time: The BFG

    Last night we were fortunate enough – myself & Small, her little cousin The Divine Miss M and her BFF – to attend a preview 3D screening of Spielberg’s The BFG. Some reviews have claimed it didn’t translate well and if anything was ‘too faithful’ to Roald Dahl’s much-loved novel. I don’t need to explain…

  • The Snow Wombat – Susannah Chambers – illustrated by Mark Jackson

    ISBN: 9781760113810 Publisher: Allen & Unwin Imprint: A & U Children June 2016   RRP $24.99 Those of us in tropical Queensland rarely, if ever, get to experience the High Country under its wintery blanket of snow.  I was hoping to take Small there these holidays to visit friends, snow and wombats but alas! The…

  • This Girl That Girl – Charlotte Lance

    ISBN: 9781760291709 Publisher: Allen & Unwin Imprint: A & U Children Pub Date: June 2016 RRP $24.99   A great little book for young readers around 4 years up that explores the differences but also the similarities between people. Two girls who live next door to each other are seemingly poles apart in their personalities…

  • Let’s Play – Hervé Tullet

    Allen & Unwin ISBN 9781760292980 Imprint: A & U Children April 2016 RRP $22.99   Make no mistake – I beg to review each of Hervé’s books! And they never leave this house. My Small and Miss Mouse would miss them too much. They are re-read over and over each time with as much delight…

  • 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…

  • My Dog Dash – Nicki Greenberg

    ISBN: 9781760110673 Publisher: Allen & Unwin Imprint: A & U Children May 2016 RRP $24.99   This is an absolute hoot of a book and I can’t wait to read it aloud (with Small in the house and Miss Mouse sleeping over, it will be a great opportunity this weekend)! If you’ve ever owned a…