Just So Stories

Random Reviews and Ramblings from Redcliffe


  • The Legend of Jessie Hickman – Mark Greenwood/Frané Lessac

    NLA 9781922507853/1 October 2025/AUD$24.99, NZD$29.99 If you believe in legends … I would venture to say that not many people know about Jessie Hickman. In fact, despite my long interest in Australian bushrangers, I probably wouldn’t either except for the fact of having spent a reasonable amount of time in the proximity of Jessie’s one-time…

  • Curious Kai Asks Why? – Sarah Pye. Sandra Severgnini.

    September 2025ISBN: 978-1-7640657-0-2 (paperback)ISBN: 978-1-7640657-1-9 (ebook) Last year I had the great pleasure of meeting and making friends with both these Sunshine Coast based creators. A more dynamic and engaging pair of personalities you would find hard to meet. Since then I’ve reviewed books from them, followed their adventures (most recently, Sarah’s trip to Galapagos…

  • This Bird: noticing our urban birds – Astred Hicks. With Holly Parsons.

    CSIRO Publishing August 2025 ISBN: 9781486318452  RRP: $26.99 It’s another wonderful title from CSIRO and yes! more birds! I talked a little about our backyard birds in a previous post but we also have our birds along the shore within a minutes’ walk. The regulars are: Australian and Little Pied Cormorants, welcome swallows, pelicans, oyster…

  • The Great Dawn Choir – Sarah Speedie. Illustrated by Cindy Lane

    CSIRO Publishing August 2025 ISBN: 9781486318339 RRP: $26.99 We may not live in the ‘bush’ as I’ve heard some proudly describe their location [while at the same time moaning about the lack of facilities, phone signal and more] but that doesn’t mean in the slightest that we do not have our fair share of wildlife,…

  • Cassowary Dad – Beverley McWilliams. Illustrated by Julian Teh.

    CSIRO Publishing February 2025 ISBN: 9781486317578  $26.99 To kick off the week of birds [yes intentional!], and so close to Fathers Day, what better choice than our own Queenslander and largest of the cassowary species – the Southern Cassowary, daddy extraordinaire! You know it’s top shelf when it comes from the CSIRO, and Beverley McWilliams…

  • Hedgehog or Echidna? – Ashleigh Barton and Amandine Thomas

    Hachette July 2025  9780734422682 | RRP $24.99 There are lots of ‘look-alike’ critters in the animal kingdom and your readers will take great delight in this book which looks at many of those. The lively rhyming text will engage them and, of course, enable some prediction as you or they read. And the fruitful discussions that can…

  • Britannica All New Children’s Encyclopedia

    What We Know and What We Don’t Walker Books September 2025 Imprint: Britannica Books ISBN13: 9781804661499 Australia RRP: $64.99 New Zealand RRP: $67.99 Last year I reviewed another of Christopher Lloyd’s amazing fat-as-mud books of EVERYTHING and it was just great. This is an updated edition of the Children’s Brittanica which went totally gangbusters on…

  • Quoll – Christopher Cheng. Illustrated by Cindy Lane

    Walker Books Australia July 2025 ISBN13:9781760655679 Australia RRP:$26.99 New Zealand RRP:$28.99 You know before you even open the book that it’s going to be magnificent when the Christopher Cheng name is on the cover. And with quolls excitingly in the news in the last few months, this is a very timely and most excellent new…

  • Quarks, Sparks and Quantum Mysteries – Lisa Harvey-Smith

     A Cosmic Guide to the Building Blocks of our Universe Illustrations by Aidan Ryan Thames & Hudson June 2025 ISBN: 9781760763138 RRP: $26.99 It has to be said – I am the least scientifically-minded person I know. It’s not that I disdain science, or am one of those people from a large country across the world…

  • Cloud. Wind. Wave. Atlas -Sarah Zambello. Susy Zanella.

    Thames & Hudson 2024/2025 ISBN: 9781760764500/ISBN: 9781760764524/ISBN: 9781760764517 RRP: $34.99 I have often mentioned that Small Person Me was a bit of a non-fiction nerdy kid and as such I had a passing interest in all sorts of topics. Most usually from my brother’s ‘general’ non-fiction books though I did have some of my own that were specific…