Just So Stories

Random Reviews and Ramblings from Redcliffe


  • Just a Dog (new edition): Michael Gerard Bauer

    Scholastic Australia November 2025 9781761127816 $15.99 Xmas gift for middle grade kiddos It’s been a while – 2011, we first met Mister Mosely and since then his award-winning fame has travelled the world, and it was a joy to re-visit his gentle nature, his quirky adventures, and his family. We know how much the kiddos…

  • 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,…

  • Gloam – Jack MacKay

    Bloomsbury September 2025 Imprint: Oneworld ISBN: 9780861549528 RRP: $16.99 Sometimes a debut novel comes along that completely blows you away, and this would be one of those. I’m not a fan of horror, but I don’t mind a bit of creepy – this was actually quite a lot of creepy! and an enormously good read.…

  • Promises and Other Lies – Sue Whiting

    Walker Books Australia September 2025 ISBN13:9781760658649 Australia RRP:$17.99 New Zealand RRP:$19.99 This was absolutely a crackerjack read and I ate it up over two nights. Sue Whiting has such a deft hand with writing narratives that tackle difficult and emotive issues with grace and sensitivity, and this is a prime example. You will all, I…

  • The Disappearing Circus – Helen Edwards/Kate Gordon

    Riveted Press July 2025 Distributed by Simon & Schuster ISBN13: 9781763526099 RRP: AU$ 17.99 / NZ$ 19.99 I have taken my time with this, both the reading of it and the writing of the review. So much so, that I was strongly reminded of my Oddity review, four years ago, when I wrote: I read…

  • 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,…

  • The Silken Thread – Gabrielle Wang

    Penguin Australia July 2025 This beautiful new novel from former Laureaute and multi-award winner, Gabrielle Wang, is an absolutely outstanding, and almost mystical, exploration of East meets West. It is not a time-slip but rather a shift in the universe, from Chongming Island in China to Melbourne, Australia, with two very different young people crossing…

  • R.I.P. Nanny Tobbins – Lucie Stevens

    Harper Collins Australia June 2025 ISBN: 9781460766521 ISBN 10: 1460766520 $16.99 It’s one thing having a strict but kind and fair Nanny who is alive – and quite another when that Nanny is dead. Nine-year-old Albertine is a sweet child, who is without a mother but with a very loving and protective father. He is, in fact,…

  • Gone – Michel Streich

    Thames & Hudson Australia Pty Ltd  3rd June 2025 ISBN: 9781760764920 ISBN-10: 1760764922 RRP: $26.00 As you might expect, if you are familiar with our story, grief after the loss of her mother was an enormous obstacle for The Kid and I both ten years ago. At least I had, at my fingertips, a range of titles…