Just So Stories

Random Reviews and Ramblings from Redcliffe

  • 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…

  • Phyllis Wong and the Waking of the Wizard – Geoffrey McSkimming

    ISBN: 9781760113384 Publisher: Allen & Unwin Imprint: A & U Children Pub Date: June 2015 Page Extent:400 Format: Paperback RRP $15.99 Here comes the indomitable Phyllis Wong again! Geoffrey McSkimming’s savvy young conjuror (who is also a superb mystery solver) is such a likeable character; no wonder then, that this series has taken off with…

  • New Boy – Nick Earls

    Penguin Australia Puffin Imprint Published: 25/03/2015 Format: Paperback, 176 pages RRP: $14.99 price:AUD $14.99 ISBN-13:9780143308393 Yes, it’s true, Nick Earls is one of my very most favourite authors 🙂 no matter if it’s kid lit or adult fiction. Aside from that, he is such a lovely human and very funny.  When he graciously did a…

  • Watch This Space: #1 Out to Launch – Colin Thompson

    Random House Australia ISBN: 9781742756202 Published: 01/05/2015 Imprint: Random House Australia Children’s Extent: 256 pages RRP: $15.99 Last year when I had the good fortune of a blog Q&A with Colin Thompson, following the publication of the final book about The Floods, he told us about his forthcoming series called Watch This Space and after…

  • Apocalypse Bow Wow – James Proimos III illustrated by James Proimos Jr

    ISBN: 9781408854983 Australian Pub.: January 2015 Publisher: Bloomsbury Imprint: Bloomsbury Child Subject: Children’s fiction With the plethora of dystopian fiction that has been overwhelming readers in recent years, this very amusing graphic novel is a welcome relief.  A hilarious spin on the whole genre, this is perfect for Middle School readers with a discerning sense of…

  • Diary of a Basketball Hero –Shamini Flint

    ISBN: 9781760111502 Australian Pub.: January 2015 Publisher: Allen & Unwin Imprint: A & U Children Suitable for ages: 7-11 The popularity of this series was very evident last year with my Year 5 boys. Written in an illustrative diary style by Marcus the main character, they tell of the poor boy’s trials and tribulations in…

  • The Girl from Sandy Desert – Jukuna Mona Chuguna and Pat Lowe illustrated by Mervyn Street

    Magabala Books Published:Feb 2015 Pages:112 ISBN:9781922142054 Ages:Upper primary Format:Paperback RRP $16.99 This is a quite different book very suitable for Upper Primary/Middle School with firsthand accounts of traditional indigenous desert life told through the eyes of a young Walmajarri girl, Mana. Pat Lowe is an Englishwoman who moved to Broome in 1979, fulfilling a lifelong…

  • 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…

  • RealReads: All Quiet on the Western Front & The 39 Steps

    I am not sure how others may be using these retold classics from RealReads but they have now published dozens of titles across a wide range of authors and genres, and have sales in excess of 280,000 in many different countries. There is certainly an argument that these condensed retellings with their illustrations, notes and…