Just So Stories

Random Reviews and Ramblings from Redcliffe

  • Weirdosaurus – Philip Bunting

    Pre-history’s Most Peculiar Creatures Hardie Grant Australia September 2025 ISBN:9781761214 Price:AU$29.99, NZ$34.99 Publisher:Hardie Grant Children’s Publishing Here are some words from the publisher and the author to describe this hilarious but extremely informative book: playful, humour, witty jokes, funny anecdotes, and fabulous facts. But as it’s Philip Bunting, you would have worked that out without…

  • Picture Book Month Bonus: Rory Sparkes and the Elephant in the Room – Hugh Bonneville

    Bloomsbury Australia October 2025 ISBN 9781526685957 Imprint Bloomsbury Children’s Books RRP: $17.99 Most people would know that I’m very wary of books by ‘celebrity’ authors but I am always willing to take a punt when a) I know that it is the person themselves that has written it (or that their collaborator/ghost writer is clearly…

  • Being Indy – Zoe Gaetjens. Illustrated by Estee Sarsfield

    Westwords October 2025 RRP $29.95 ISBN: 9781923044517 This is another intriguing and very different title from Westwords, and another that can be described as a fable. This a timeless narrative about one’s internal desire to fit in and be accepted, and the lengths to which some will go to do so. I love these opening…

  • My Friend May – Julie Flett

    New South Books Greystone Kids June 2025 ISBN 9781778401718 RRP: 29.99 How can I not absolutely love this one? Based on a true story and about a little girl and her friend, her black cat May, my first thought was of The Kid and Whiskers aka The Demon Spawn. This pair has been together for…

  • The Friendship Book – Zanni Louise

    Walker Books Australia November 2025 ISBN13:9781760658106 Australia RRP:$24.99 New Zealand RRP:$27.99 Zanni has been very busy this year! And here is yet another of her new releases (another one is coming up in review shortly). I don’t know about you but for me this time of year would always see me planning for the following…

  • Finding Alfie: a D-Day Story – Michael Morpurgo. Michael Foreman.

    Scholastic Australia May 2025 ISBN: 9780702325205 ISBN-10: 0702325201 RRP: $29.95 When I got this it, I decided to save it for Rembrance Day, as the timing from my point of view wasn’t right for the D-Day events. But what a superb book it is, as one would expect from these two literary legends. I have said before…

  • Tiny Dancer – Patrick Guest. Mateja Jager

    Westwords Imprint : Peribo August 2025 ISBN: 9781923044364 RRP: $27.99 While it’s not a ‘bird’ book like the other two in today’s post, it seems most appropriate to include this gentle and beautiful fable with its winged heroine, Konomi, with those. Some of you may have read my review of Shirley Marr’s One Day earlier this year,…

  • Bowerbird Bloom – Aura Parker

    Scholastic Australia ISBN: 9781761720918 ISBN-10: 1761720910 Series: Bowerbird : Book 3 Published: 1st November 2025 RRP: $19.99 Watch here Teaching notes One might be forgiven for thinking – how can Aura top the first two gorgeous Bowerbird books? – and then you see this and just go – aaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh 💜. The brood is growing up. They love being together.…

  • Omnibird: an Avian Investigator’s Handbook – Giselle Clarkson

    Walker Books Australia Imprint: Gecko Press October 2025 ISBN13:9798765670514 Australia RRP:$37.99 New Zealand RRP:$44.99 Have you seen a bird today? Probably, unless you’re reading this in bed. Did you truly look at the bird? To open your ornithological eyes and ears, meet the Omnibird. An Omnibird contains the essential birdiness of every bird—it was born…

  • My Dream Holiday – Ash Barty. Jasmin McGaughey. Jade Goodwin.

    Harper Collins Australia You may or may not have heard the current furore instigated by The Society of Authors UK over ‘celebrity-authored’ books and that’s hardly surprising. I have seen many books that I know very well have not been written by the person named as author, with there is nary a mention of the…