Just So Stories

Random Reviews and Ramblings from Redcliffe


  • Mutt Dog! 21st Anniversary Edition – Stephen Michael King

    Scholastic Australia November 2025 ISBN: 9781761723780 RRP: $19.99 I know I say this a lot – but these anniversary editions!! they remind me just how long I’ve been a teacher-librarian. Don’t get me wrong – that’s a good thing but sometimes it seems like only yesterday when a particular book first came my way. In…

  • Happy Anniversary Tashi!! Tashi 30th Anniversary Edition – Anna Fienberg, Barbara Fienberg, Kim Gamble

    Allen & Unwin July 2025 ISBN:9781761181450 Publisher: &U Children’s Imprint: A & U Children Thirty years and over 100 millions of sales on, Tashi is every bit as entertaining, clever, funny and brave as he ever was. I can still recall how enchanted I was on first meeting him, and knowing that the kiddos in…

  • Alexander’s Outing – Pamela Allen

    Penguin Australia Who hasn’t shared the love with Alexander at some point, (or many even!) over the past 30 – THIRTY!! – years? And for those of us who are Sydney girls, it has always had a special place in our reading canon. My last outing with Alexander was about a year ago with a…

  • The Little Engine that Could – Watty Piper

    Scholastic Australia December 2024 ISBN: 9781761642449 ISBN-10: 1761642448 RRP: $19.99 As I read this [I’ve lost count of how many times I have done so over the years] ready to write this review, it is Xmas Eve. And, as happens, all my loved ones who are missing are strongly in my mind. My dear Mum, who would…

  • Are We There Yet? 20th Anniversary edition – Alison Lester

    Penguin Australia October 2024 Hands up if you’ve also forgotten how many times in the past 20 years you’ve shared this one? I know it was a focal point of my literature-based unit with Year 3s often and on many occasions, aside from all the times I’ve just read it to Smalls. And it never…

  • Bamboozled: Celebrating 30 years – David Legge

    This is another happy anniversary edition that takes me right back to the start of my t-l career. If only I had a dollar for every time I’ve read this one to my kiddos! It’s another perfect example of a picture book that can be used in multiple ways as valuable adjunct to a teaching…

  • Wombat Stew 40th Anniversary Edition – Marcia K. Vaughan/Pamela Lofts

    Scholastic Australia August 2024 It’s not that I’m not happy to see yet another old favourite with a new anniversary dress but 40 years!! EEEEK! It’s kind of hard to believe and yet, obviously it is not because apart from anything else, I bought this one for The Kid’s mum when she was a Small…

  • Something Special – Emily Rodda

    Harper Collins Australia July 2024 Forty years ago, Emily Rodda’s first book was published by Allen & Unwin, and subsequentlywon the CBCA Younger Readers Award in 1985. Following that auspicious beginning, Emily has continued to delight and engage readers over her remarkable four decade long career, and to mark this occasion, Harper Collins has released…

  • Where is the Green Sheep? Celebration Book [20th Anniversary] – Mem Fox and Judy Horacek

    Penguin Australia April 2024 Twenty years ago this was a brand new sparkling book that was a huge hit in my library lessons. Now it’s an iconic staple of our Oz Kids Lit picture book canon, still sparkling, and still a huge hit with little readers. As soon as it was available I had my…

  • One Hungry Spider: 35th Anniversary edition – Jeannie Baker

    Scholastic Australia November 2023 ISBN: 9781760267001 RRP: $26.99 My Garden Path : Gardening Australia Series 30/Episode 05 March 2019 I first fell in love with Jeannie Baker‘s work with her very first book, Polar. It was released long before I became a teacher, and teacher-librarian, and I had bought it for my eldest, who was…