Just So Stories

Random Reviews and Ramblings from Redcliffe

  • Soaring with the Sugarbird Lady: the Robin Miller Story – Dianne Wolfer

    Fremantle Press March 2025 ISBN: 978176099527 RRP: $17.99 My love of historical fiction knows no bounds as when I come across a hitherto unknown episode, particularly of the Australian + women variety. Dianne Wolfer has introduced me to a young woman who was an absolute stand-out – in Dianne’s own words ‘a trailblazer for women, winging…

  • Picture Book Month Extra! : Tigg and the Bandicoot Bushranger – Jackie French

    Harper Collins Australia December 2024 ISBN: 9781460763506 ISBN 10: 1460763505 Imprint: HarperCollins AU $17.99 Regular readers here know what a fan I am of Jackie’s work, particularly her historical fiction. She so deftly weaves fact and fiction creating a portal back in time for young readers to become bystanders and witnesses to some of the most significant events,…

  • Picture Book Month extra: The Death of Dora Black: a Petticoat Police Mystery – Lainie Anderson

    Hachette Australia Aug 28, 2024 | 9780733652066 | RRP $32.99 What a thoroughly enjoyable read this has been over the past few nights! I’m a tragic when it comes to cosy crime and murder mystery books and over the past couple of years I’ve had quite a number of YA titles to review, and also listened to a few…

  • Picture Book Month Extra: The Librarians of Rue de Picardie – Janet Skeslien Charles.

    Hachette Apr 30, 2024 | 9781035417896 | RRP $32.99 I actually read this months ago not long after I got it – and I loved it – but somehow it got buried under a pile (of other books languishing waiting for their reviews). But just let me tell you, this is most certainly worth the read. I was a…

  • Picture Book Month extra!! Cobweb – Michael Morpurgo

    Harper Collins Australia ISBN: 9780008352141 ISBN 10: 0008352143 Imprint: HarperCollins GB RRP: $19.99 Once again Michael Morpurgo demonstrates exactly why he is a master of middle grade historical fiction, even at the venerable age of 80+. If you have read his memoir Such Stuff: a Storymaker’s Inspiration, you will already be aware that most, if not all, of…

  • Hester Hitchins and the Falling Stars – Catherine Norton

    Harper Collins Australia July 2024 ISBN: 9781460763179 ISBN 10: 1460763173 Imprint: HarperCollins AU RRP: $22.99 Don’t think it’s taken me all this time to read this one because it didn’t at all. After The Fortune Maker this was high up in the reading order. It’s just a sad fact that it’s taken me this long to get to…

  • Fallout – Lesley Parr

    Bloomsbury Australia October 2024 ISBN 9781526648013 Imprint Bloomsbury Children’s Books RRP: $15.99 I have been a fan of Lesley Parr’s writing since the very first I reviewed, and this new one is another fabulous read. I ate it up over this past weekend, thoroughly immersed in Marcus’ troubled life in his Welsh valley in the…

  • All the Beautiful Things – Katrina Nannestad

    Harper Collins October 2024 ISBN: 9780733343148 ISBN 10: 0733343147 Imprint: ABC Books RRP: $22.99 It goes without saying that Katrina Nannestad’s books are going to fly off the shelves. She just produces one amazing narrative after another. When I was asked to write notes for this new one, I was naturally delighted. I found the book not only…

  • Marion and the Forty Thieves – Sarah Luke

    NLA July 2024 ISBN : 9781922507679 Publisher : National Library of Australia Imprint : National Library of Australia RRP: $19.99 I grew up in Sydney and I was a kid with a thirst for history, particularly of my home town. I loved my excursions to the Rocks and being taken into the city on outings with my father, also a history…

  • Where the Heart Should Be – Sarah Crossan

    Bloomsbury March 2024 ISBN 9781526666598 Imprint Bloomsbury YA RRP: $25.00 Carnegie Medal-winning, former Laureate na nÓg Sarah Crossan became one of my most favourite writers when I read my first of her titles, Toffee. That book made such an impression on me that I quickly sought out others and kept my eye out for them…