Just So Stories

Random Reviews and Ramblings from Redcliffe

  • Picture Book Month Bonus; False Versus Facts – Dan Marshall

    Walker Books Australia August 2025 ISBN13:9781760659721 Australia RRP:$19.99 New Zealand RRP:$24.99 This is a terrific fun and fascinating read for your kiddos from around Year 3 to Year 5/6 who like this type of quick grab info books. Each topic covered starts off with a fallacy and then provides 3 actual facts about the subject.…

  • Lucky’s Star – Mark Greenwood. Illustrated by Lucia Masciullo.

    CSIRO Publishing June 2025 Last ‘sky’ book for the day and I have to be honest. I’d not even heard of the Murchison’s Meteorite, but it’s not really a topic that would often grab my attention, and to be fair at the time of the event, I was only just starting high school – so…

  • How Big is the Sky? -Kimberly Brown

    Simon & Schuster Publisher: Affirm Press July 2025 ISBN13: 9781923046368 RRP: LIST PRICE: AU$ 24.99 / NZ$ 29.99 While this one fits perfectly into today’s theme in a titular way, it is not about the sky at all. It is, in fact, about a whole lot of different concepts and it is a book which…

  • Picture Book Month Bonus: Start with a Teapot: an unexpected guide to the art of drawing – Enric Lax

    Walker Books Australia Imprint: Gecko Press ISBN13:9798765670491 Australia RRP:$29.99 New Zealand RRP:$34.99 Invariably, when I’m with a class and we are about to draw, there is always the one – or more – who say ‘But I can’t draw…’ or ‘I’m terrible at drawing…’. I always tell them that I’m not an artist but I…

  • CSIRO Publishing line up!

    I seem to have collected a few so here’s the round-up of all I have left for this year – every single one of utmost excellence as we know we will get from this publishing house, and all of them with subject matter that will engage, fascinate and inform kiddos. Every Rock has a Story:…

  • The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Fast and Slow Animals – Sami Bayly

    Hachette Australia September 2025 Imprint: Lothian Children’s Books 9780734421418 | RRP $32.99 I could just say – Sami Bayly – and not need to write another word really. I know it. You know it. The kiddos certainly know it. This woman’s ability to create fascinating and fabulous books that tap into children’s innate love of animals and…

  • Mega!- Laura Holloway. Illustrated by Liz Duthie

    Simon & Schuster Published by : Wild Dog Books November 2025 Moving on from the Age of Dinosaurs, but for those die-hards who still want to explore the long-extinct creatures is this fabulous look at Australia’s own mega-fauna. Some kiddos will already know about the diprotodon and perhaps one or two others, but this is…

  • Weirdosaurus – Philip Bunting

    Pre-history’s Most Peculiar Creatures Hardie Grant Australia September 2025 ISBN:9781761214 Price:AU$29.99, NZ$34.99 Publisher:Hardie Grant Children’s Publishing Here are some words from the publisher and the author to describe this hilarious but extremely informative book: playful, humour, witty jokes, funny anecdotes, and fabulous facts. But as it’s Philip Bunting, you would have worked that out without…

  • Finding Alfie: a D-Day Story – Michael Morpurgo. Michael Foreman.

    Scholastic Australia May 2025 ISBN: 9780702325205 ISBN-10: 0702325201 RRP: $29.95 When I got this it, I decided to save it for Rembrance Day, as the timing from my point of view wasn’t right for the D-Day events. But what a superb book it is, as one would expect from these two literary legends. I have said before…

  • Omnibird: an Avian Investigator’s Handbook – Giselle Clarkson

    Walker Books Australia Imprint: Gecko Press October 2025 ISBN13:9798765670514 Australia RRP:$37.99 New Zealand RRP:$44.99 Have you seen a bird today? Probably, unless you’re reading this in bed. Did you truly look at the bird? To open your ornithological eyes and ears, meet the Omnibird. An Omnibird contains the essential birdiness of every bird—it was born…