Just So Stories

Random Reviews and Ramblings from Redcliffe

  • My Mum’s Amazing! Phil Cummings. Hannah Marks.

    Scholastic Australia March 2026 9781761297380 RRP: $19.99 This is just pure delight from start to finish! Phil Cummings has cracked it again with a lively text that is super engaging, fun to read and so descriptive while, at the same time, encapsulating all those great things we appreciate about our mothers, for Smalls to reflect…

  • I’d Rather Be a Shark – Philip & Laura Bunting

    The Buntings have done it again with an uproariously look at ‘what if…’ when a child is fed up with having to use their manners, or being kind to everyone and taking turns, smiling sweetly and, as for sharing – phooey! What if….one salty kid could transform into a salty, snapping toothy SHARK! That would…

  • More School of Monsters – Sally Rippin. Chris Kennett.

    Hardie Grant February 2026 Price:AU$11.99, NZ$13.99 Series:School of Monsters Publisher:Hardie Grant Children’s Publishing Drake’s Silly Sneezes ISBN:9781761213557 Snell’s Show and Tell ISBN:9781761213540 Huzzah! School of Monsters has two more fun titles to add to your collection for those Smalls who are so excitedly embarking on their independent reading journeys. This series is so far removed…

  • I Am Not a Fish – Patrick Guest. Katie Abey.

    Scholastic Australia April 2026 ISBN: 9781761647628 ISBN-10: 1761647628 RRP: $19,99 I have such fond memories of The Second Sky, do you? My kiddos, in our countdown to the Book of the Year awards and our sharing of all the short-listed picture books (Early Childhood category, voted it our readers’ choice winner. So… this is NOTHING like that…

  • Pocket Potters-palooza: #4 and 5 – Professor Dumbledore & Luna Lovegood – J. K. Rowling

    Bloomsbury Australia Always excited when my ‘dealer’ comes good with more goodies to feed my addiction, which hasn’t waned one iota in over 25 years now. Thank you, Sonia! Professor Dumbledore Illustrated by Paula Escobar February 2026 $17.99 ISBN 9781526685186 Imprint Bloomsbury Children’s Books You will have already seen the first three titles in this…

  • Daisy and Bug: Treehouse Troubles – Kim de Haan

    Perentie Press Kim de Haan 9781923543072 April 2026 AUD$15.99, NZD$16.99 To be honest, I said, I’m not a huge fan of graphics. I have reviewed some that were extraordinarily great but, in general, yeah nah – not for me, so I usually avoid them. ‘It’s just a little one for younger kids’. Well, it is…

  • Freddie Jones: The Mystery of the Troublesome Trees – Kate Foster

    Walker Books Imprint: Walker Books Australia February 2026 ISBN13:9781760659936 Australia RRP:$17.99 New Zealand RRP:$19.99 Kate Foster has become such a leading light in middle grade novels featuring neuro-diverse characters. In this, she brings her own personal experience, so always there is such authenticity and such wonderful voice. With this new series she hooks into the…

  • Stanley – Louise Zirbel. Rachel Salmon. Illustrator: Barry Patenaude.

    Boolarong Press October 2025 Imprint: Watson Ferguson Publishing ISBN: 9780645504644 RRP: $24.99 The ubiquitous and much-maligned brush turkey – bush turkey, scrub turkey, whatever your preferred terminology is certainly a character. We have plenty around here, including my regular I see on my morning walk, who has built a glorious mound in the scrub down…

  • Lila MacKay is Very Misunderstood – Gill Sims

    Harper Collins Australia December 2025 If you have followed and shrieked with laughter over Gill Sims’ FB posts Peter and Jane over the years or read her books e.g. the Why Mummy Drinks series , you will know instantly that this book is utterly hilarious. It is pure Gill Sims, with less sweary bits. Written…

  • UnBEARable – Kathryn Apel/Beau Wylie

    Scholastic Australia January 2026 We love a fractured fairytale – we do, we do!! By ‘we’ I mean those of us who teach – and regularly teach fairytales. And that’s as much a part of secondary literacy as it is primary-based. Traditional tales – in all their guises: fairytale, folk tale, myths, legends, Dreaming stories…