Just So Stories

Random Reviews and Ramblings from Redcliffe

  • Raised by Moths – Charlie Archbold. Michelle Conn

    ISBN: 9781922858184 | $29.99Picture Book | MidnightSun Publishing | October 2023Distributed by NewSouth Books I really can’t remember when I’ve read a picture book, with a central theme of adoption, quite as fanciful and positively playful as this one. When Willow shares a ferris-wheel car with a little boy, she does not expect the fantastical…

  • Strong and Tough – Rico Hinson-King/Nick Sharratt

    Bloomsbury November 2022 ISBN 9781526648624 Imprint Bloomsbury Children’s Books RRP: $24.99 This is a super story which I’ve now shared with several classes between Year 1 and 3, and all the kiddos have really enjoyed it, even though it deals with some tough issues. What is even more amazing is that it is written by…

  • Specky Magee- Felice Arena, Gary Lyons

    Penguin Australia 1st March 2022 ISBN: 9780143777168 Imprint: Puffin RRP: $16.99 Seriously, these anniversaries always give me such a jolt – “Whaddya mean 20 years of Specky?” she says with disbelief as she opens the parcel. Yep, face it, you have been doing this job a long time! I’m the first to admit (much to the disgust of…

  • When Rain Turns to Snow – Jane Godwin

    Hachette Australia JUN 30, 2020 | 9780734420053 | RRP $16.99 If you are looking for something new in your ‘identity’ collection this beautiful coming-of-age narrative will be a perfect fit. The recent months have been a revelation in how some humans handle a crisis situation and for teens this can be a real challenge. Lissa is no different. Home…

  • How to Grow a Family Tree – Eliza Henry Jones

    Harper Collins Australia March 2020 ISBN: 9781460754955 ISBN 10: 1460754956 Imprint: HarperCollins – AU List Price: 22.99 AUD Seventeen year old Stella knows exactly how to help people – after all, she’s read self-help books all her life. Her friends and family often are the beneficiaries of the wealth of her accumulated wisdom.  Best friends Clem, Zin and Lara…

  • Mercy Point – Anna Snoekstra

    Harper Collins June 2019 ISBN: 9781460709887 ISBN 10: 1460709888 RRP: $19.99 For so many the teen years are times of angst, struggling for self-identity and confidence and feeling that one ‘fits in’. For a group of five young people in the Blue Mountains it’s even more fraught as all of them suspect they may be adopted and…

  • Marvellous Miss May: Queen of the Circus – Stephanie Owen Reeder

      Publisher:   National Library of Australia Edition:   1st Edition ISBN:   9780642279156 Publication Date:   01 February 2018 RRP $24.99 What is not to love about this wonderful Heritage Heroes series?  Stephanie Owen Reeder introduces readers to a cast of significant Australians with whom many of us are unaware (myself included). This new volume continues the high standard…