Just So Stories

Random Reviews and Ramblings from Redcliffe

  • Normal Women Making History for 900 years – Philippa Gregory

    Illustrations by Alexis Snell Red Shed March 2025ISBN: 9780008725075 I am quite familiar with Philippa Gregory’s writing. Those books I have read are marvellous examples of historical fiction with such elegant blending of fact and fiction. But the title of this intrigued me as soon as I saw it. I had, in fact, no idea…

  • Inconvenient Women: Australian radical writers 1900–1970 – Jacqueline Kent

    UNSW Press 9781742237503 / May 2025 / RRP $34.99 You might guess that long extended adult reads do not happen all that often for me. I’m generally so snowed under reading kids lit that squeezing in the adult books is a mission – and usually reserved for the days at the beach while The Kid surfs or my occasional…

  • Thursdays at Orange Blossom House – Sophie Green

    Hachette JUL 28, 2021 | 9780733646126 | RRP $32.99 Sophie Green has once again crafted a beautiful and resonant narrative that will capture the hearts of readers, just as her first two books did, with its exploration of the ‘circle of women’ always so evident in her work and, to my mind, so very important to so many. Indeed,…

  • Be Frank With Me – Julia Claiborne Johnson

    Allen & Unwin Australia ISBN:9781782399179 Publisher:Atlantic Imprint:Corvus Pub Date:February 2016 RRP $27.99 As  you know, I don’t seem to get around to reading grown up books often but there was something about the blurb for this one that begged me to read and review it. Thank you thank you A&U for allowing me the unmitigated…

  • Barney and the Secret of the Whales – Jackie French

    ISBN: 9780732299446 ISBN 10: 0732299446 Imprint: HarperCollins – AU On Sale: 01/02/2016 Pages: 144 List Price: 12.99 AUD   Is there any other author who has such a deft hand at bringing Australian history alive for young readers as Jackie French? It appears this much –loved and well-respected writer is unsurpassed in this particular genre (not to mention all her other…

  • Rich & Rare – edited by Paul Collins

    ISBN: 978-1-925272-11-6 Publication date: October 2015 Extent: 512 pages Format: B Format paperback Price: AUD$24.95 Category: Genre fiction and poetry Age guide: 11+   This is a sumptuous and luscious smorgasbord feast for any reader, gathering delicacies supplied from Australia’s best storytellers. Our ‘young and free’ creators include: Michael Gerard Bauer, Gary Crew, Justin D’Ath,…

  • The One and Only Ivan – Katherine Applegate

    Harper Collins Australia I may well be one of the last to read The One and Only Ivan although I have heard all the fulsome praise for it since its publication.  And now what to say about a book that not only lives up to its hype and my expectations but exceeds them? No reader…

  • A Week Without Tuesday (A Tuesday McGillyCuddy Adventure #2) – Angelica Banks

      ISBN:9781760110376 Publisher:Allen & Unwin Imprint:A & U Children Series:A Tuesday McGillycuddy Adventure Pub Date:May 2015 Page Extent:400 Format:Paperback – RRP $15.99 Perhaps it’s because Tasmania is smallish, perhaps it’s because it’s coldish, perhaps it’s because it’s so beautiful, perhaps it’s because there is so much variety – whatever it is we seem to have…

  • Zafir [Through My Eyes] – Prue Mason

    ISBN: 9781743312544 Australian Pub.: February 2015 Publisher: Allen & Unwin Imprint: A & U Children Subject: Children’s fiction Suitable for ages: 11-14 RRP $15.99 A carefree happy boy in Syria, on the cusp of becoming a young man, finds himself and his family caught up in the tragedy of Syria’s civil war. Prue Mason has lived…

  • Five Children on the Western Front – Kate Saunders

    Allen & Unwin Australia ISBN: 9780571310951 Australian Pub.: November 2014 Publisher: Faber Imprint: Faber Child Trade Subject: Children’s fiction Suitable for ages: 9-12 If you, like me, love E. Nesbit’s Five Children and It stories, then this new book will thoroughly delight you. Time has passed and the children are grown up – well the…