Just So Stories

Random Reviews and Ramblings from Redcliffe

  • 100 Remarkable Feats of Xander Maze – Clayton Zane Comber

    Harper Collins Australia June 2021 ISBN: 9781460759455 ISBN 10: 1460759451 Imprint: HarperCollins AU List Price: 19.99 AUD Age: From 14 years Believe me when I tell you that you will fall in love with Xander, and be sad to leave him at the end of this beautiful feel-good coming-of-age novel. Xander loves to make lists and #1 on his list…

  • The Prison Healer – Lynette Noni

    Penguin Australia Published: 30 March 2021 ISBN: 9781760897512 Imprint: Penguin Format: Trade Paperback Pages: 416 RRP: $24.99 I’m going to have a lot of my secondary students clamoring for this one. They are huge fans of Noni’s previous books, both boys and girls and this is another intriguing dark fantasy (with some dystopian touches) thriller for them to enjoy. Set in…

  • The Quiet at the End of the World – Lauren James

    Walker Books ISBN: 9781406375510 Imprint: Walker March 2019 Australian RRP: $16.99 New Zealand RRP: $18.99 To be honest, I’m totally not a sci-fi person but this novel had me completely engrossed from the first page. London: 2109. Population: 300. Sixteen year old Lowrie and seventeen year old Shen are the only remaining ‘children’ on Earth after a mystery virus,…

  • Just Breathe – Andrew Daddo

    Penguin Australia 9780143573623 July 30, 2018 RRP: $17.99 It must be hard to be so multi-talented *wry face*.  Andrew Daddo has certainly proven his ability as not only a media figure but a very able and engaging writer. I’ve not been enthralled in recent times by a lot of the YA coming my way –…

  • The Build-Up Season – Megan Jacobson

    Penguin Random House 9780143573388 July 31, 2017 Penguin (AU YR)   RRP $19.99 What a fantastic and gripping read this is! This one had to be read over two nights but it was a wrench to leave it halfway! Ily (Iliad) Piper is a young woman who has had to face many emotional upheavals in…

  • The Traitor and the Thief – Gareth Ward

    Walker Books Australia July 2017 ISBN 9781925381504 RRP $17.99 I will confess I’m not a real steampunk aficionado (His Dark Materials excepted!) but this is a complex and interesting narrative. It’s difficult to determine an actual setting either time or place except that it is in England, opening in London, and post ‘Tedwardian’ apparently.  Proper…

  • Letters to the Lost – Brigid Kemmerer

    Allen & Unwin ISBN:9781408883525 Publisher: Bloomsbury UK Imprint :Bloomsbury Child March 2017 RRP $16.99 Juliet’s mother died in a terrible hit-and-run accident. On her way home from yet another international photography mission documenting the heartbreak of war zones and disasters, she returned early at Juliet’s request and on her way from the airport was suddenly…

  • The Moonlight Dreamers – Siobhan Curham

    ISBN: 9781406365825 Imprint: WALKER PAPERBACK Distributor: Harper Collins Distribution Services for Australia and New Zealand Release Date: July 1, 2016 Australian RRP: $16.99 New Zealand RRP: $18.99   Four teenage girls couldn’t be more different in personality, home life, culture or beliefs; yet one thing brings them together. They are all fed up with other people, whether peers or adults, telling…

  • Mrs Whitlam – Bruce Pascoe

    Magabala Books Author: Bruce Pascoe Published: Jun 2016 ISBN: 9781925360240 Ages: Middle primary, Upper primary, Young Adult   I am very quickly becoming very enamoured of Bruce Pascoe’s writing for young people (not to mention for adults). He is really deft at making his young adult characters believable and contemporary without relying on current vernacular…

  • Zeroes – Scott Westerfeld, Margo Lanagan and Deborah Biancotti

        ISBN:97819252665 Publisher:Allen & Unwin Imprint:A & U Children Pub Date:October 2015 Page Extent:496 RRP $19.99   When three highly respected authors collaborate on a novel, you might expect something extraordinary and Zeroes delivers just that. This is a slam-dunk in-your-face novel that brings something quite out of the box to readers. Meet six…