Just So Stories

Random Reviews and Ramblings from Redcliffe

  • Stuck in the Mud: Peski Kids #3 – R. A. Spratt

      Penguin Random House August 2019 ISBN: 9780143796350 Imprint: Puffin RRP: $16.99 The Peski kids have certainly encountered some bizarre events since their arrival in the backwater town of Currawong but perhaps the annual town Mud Run is one of the most strange – to their minds at least. Added to this is the even more repugnant…

  • The Good Thieves – Katherine Rundell

    Bloomsbury ISBN: 9781526608130 Imprint: Bloomsbury Children’s Books RRP $14.99 I have quickly become a fan of Katherine Rundell’s writing. After The Wolf Wilder and especially The Explorer (still the most visited blog post I’ve put up!) it would be hard to ignore such magical and adventurous narratives. Once again Katherine has put a group of…

  • Kensy and Max #3: Undercover – Jacqueline Harvey

    Penguin Random House 9780143791904 March 5, 2019 Random House Australia Children’s   $16.99 Jacqueline Harvey has done it again with another super episode in her cracking new series about the two intrepid twins, Kensington and Maxim aka Kensy and Max.  The children’s parents are still MiA but news of them is filtering through and they…

  • Ariki and the Giant Shark – Nicola Davies. Illustrated by Nicola Kinnear.

    Walker Books Australia July 2018 ISBN: 9781406369793 Imprint: Walker Australian RRP: $12.99 New Zealand RRP: $14.99 It can be difficult to find fiction that focuses on the Pacific/Polynesian cultures particularly for younger readers but this first book in a new series promises to be rich material for this aspect of HASS as well as being an entertaining mystery/adventure. Ariki…

  • Wundersmith : The Calling of Morrigan Crow : Nevermoor 2– Jessica Townsend

    Hachette OCT 30, 2018 | 9780734418227 | RRP $16.99 Imprint: Lothian Books Morrigan is back! The eagerly anticipated second instalment of Nevermoor is no disappointment and the many readers who are bursting at the seams waiting to get their hands on a copy will be delighted. Now that Morrigan has passed her trials she becomes part of Unit 919…

  • Other Worlds #3 & #4 – George Ivanoff

      Penguin Random House RRP $14.99 #3 Game World 9780143786238 May 28, 2018 Random House Australia Children’s   George’s new series will be just as popular as his previous offerings I predict and this one particularly is clearly going to have huge appeal to the ‘gamers’ in your reading audience. Hall is not very special…

  • The Storm Keeper’s Island – Catherine Doyle

    Bloomsbury Australia August 2018 ISBN: 9781408896884 Imprint: Bloomsbury Children’s Books RRP :$14.99 What a simply sparkling debut novel! It did take me two nights rather than my usual one (but I confess a little tiredness even after a week of holidays) but it was simply page-turning and thoroughly engrossing. Fionn Boyle and his older sister…

  • Other Worlds 1: Perfect World – George Ivanoff

      Penguin Random House 9780143786191 February 26, 2018 Random House Australia Children’s   RRP: $14.99 George Ivanoff has well established his cred for providing exciting adventurous narratives for the middle school crowd. In Other Worlds and this particular first instalment he’s also giving them what I would describe as a taste of dystopian for younger…

  • A Wrinkle in Time – Madeleine L’Engle [movie tie-in edition]

    Penguin Australia 9780241331163 January 29, 2018 Puffin   $14.99 How old were you when you first read this iconic book? I believe I was in 6th class so around 11/12. After the legion readers the novel has attracted since its first publishing in 1962 it seems hard to believe that the author had faced numerous…

  • La Belle Sauvage : The Book of Dust #1 – Phillip Pullman

    Penguin Random House 9780857561084 October 19, 2017 David Fickling Books   RRP $32.99   Dear Philip Pullman It is magnificent! How long must I wait for volume 2? Yours Sincerely Me   I don’t think I would have been alone when, upon finding out earlier this year that Philip Pullman was publishing a new ‘prequel’…