Just So Stories

Random Reviews and Ramblings from Redcliffe

  • For Little Jarjums

    Two delightful little board books for your Smallest of Smalls from Fremantle Press today. SO cute!!! Kep Barna: Water Creatures [#2 Noongar First Words series} – Jayden Boundry/Tyrown Waigana February 2026 ISBN: 9781760995591 RRP: AU$16.99/NZ$21.00/US$12.95 Once again your Smalls can learn some new words in Noongar accompanied by their English counterparts, this time of a variety…

  • Newcastle: the lives and times of a city – Scott Bevan

    New South Publishing October 2025 9781742238043  RRP: $39.99 Why on earth would a Sydney girl ask to review a book about Newcastle? Growing up and all through school, I knew virtually nothing about Newcastle beyond ‘coal’ ‘dirty industry’ and of course, ‘worst of the worst convicts‘. But then, as an adult and somewhere around the…

  • Leaving this week with this…

    Change the Date Majority of Australians support Changing the Date, national poll finds

  • Going for Pippies – Wilaaran Laurie. Illustrated by Tori-Jay Mordey.

    Publisher: Magabala Books Distributor: Hachette Australia Sep 2025 | 9781922864147 | RRP $27.99 And last, but not least, in this round of beautiful First Nations titles is yet again a family story, including grandparent, by the sea although wayyyyy over this side of the country, in northern NSW. This family is having a mob day out to collect and…

  • Going Fishing with Nana – Frances and Lindsay Haji-Ali. Karen Briggs.

    Publisher: Magabala Books Distributor: Hachette Oct 14, 2025 | 9781922864048 | RRP $27.99 We’re staying with the sea, long trips and grandparents for this one with the setting switched to the far north of the Kimberley region, and a little place called Wyndham. When the authors lived in Broome, there were regular visits to Wyndham with their children, to…

  • Bapa’s Last Canoe – Maree McCarthy Yoelu, Samanta Campbell

    Publisher: Magabala Books Distributor: Hachette Oct 14, 2025 | 9781922777775 | RRP $27.99 For many of our kiddos, the very idea of going far away from home to go to school is a strange concept. But then, so is a journey by dug-out canoe taking months to say goodbye to family and friends, before going to the big smoke…

  • Turbo Turtle: Scales and Tails #4- Gregg Dreise

    Magabala Books Hachette Australia November 2025 | 9781922864109 | RRP $27.99 A new Gregg Dreise book is always a delight- just like the man himself and this one, in the Scales and Tails sequence, is not only a significant story handed down to Gregg from his uncle, but references the Stolen Generation, providing an opportunity to introduce this topic…

  • Good Morning, Mr Sarra:My life working for a stronger, smarter future for our children (new edition): 10th Anniversary edition – Chris Sarra

    UQP December 2022 ISBN 978070226589 A$32.99 In mid-1998 I was in my last year at Nanango State School, then teacher-librarian and six years into my teaching career. That was also the year that Chris Sarra arrived at Cherbourg State School as Queensland’s first Aboriginal school principal. It was a game-changer not only for Cherbourg and…

  • Change the Date

    It’s obviously disturbing to me, as the mother and grandmother of First Nations offspring, that for many the continued ‘celebration’ of 26th January as Australia Day is insensitive at best, offensive at worst. Each year the momentum for changing the date grows, although the upswell of racism we have seen of late can impact this.…

  • First Knowledges Ceremony: All Our Yesterdays for Today – Wesley Enoch. Georgia Curran.

    Thames & Hudson August 20265ISBN: 9781760764074 RRP: $26.99 What is ceremony for many of us is not the same as Ceremony for our First Nations people. And while there are plenty of us who understand the purpose and meaning of some of these ceremonies, there are still just as many who are not only ignorant…