Just So Stories

Random Reviews and Ramblings from Redcliffe

  • Lucky’s Star – Mark Greenwood. Illustrated by Lucia Masciullo.

    CSIRO Publishing June 2025 Last ‘sky’ book for the day and I have to be honest. I’d not even heard of the Murchison’s Meteorite, but it’s not really a topic that would often grab my attention, and to be fair at the time of the event, I was only just starting high school – so…

  • Mega!- Laura Holloway. Illustrated by Liz Duthie

    Simon & Schuster Published by : Wild Dog Books November 2025 Moving on from the Age of Dinosaurs, but for those die-hards who still want to explore the long-extinct creatures is this fabulous look at Australia’s own mega-fauna. Some kiddos will already know about the diprotodon and perhaps one or two others, but this is…

  • All Aboard! Discovering Sydney’s Central Station – Jackie French. Martina Heiduczek.

    New Frontier Publishing August 2025 ISBN : 978-1-923145-38-2 PRICE : $26.99 As a Sydney kid growing up in the late 50s and 60s Central Station, as was, felt very familiar to me. Not that we regularly went to the city every week or even every month, but we did quite often for special occasions. And certainly we…

  • Our History: A House Divided – Clare Hallifax

    Walker Books Australia August 2025 ISBN13:9781760658991 Australia RRP:$16.99 New Zealand RRP:$18.99 What a terrific book to pair with your upper primary studies on our goverment systems, not to mention your Civics and Citizenship units for secondary students. In the mid-70s I hadn’t yet experienced living in Canberra, and was yet to discover its unique character,…

  • The Legend of Jessie Hickman – Mark Greenwood/Frané Lessac

    NLA 9781922507853/1 October 2025/AUD$24.99, NZD$29.99 If you believe in legends … I would venture to say that not many people know about Jessie Hickman. In fact, despite my long interest in Australian bushrangers, I probably wouldn’t either except for the fact of having spent a reasonable amount of time in the proximity of Jessie’s one-time…

  • Heads up on these two

    To conclude this week of NAIDOC posts, I want to bring your attention to these two titles for adults. Contrary to my usual practice of only reviewing what I’ve read, I’ve just not had time to get to these [though I certainly intend to!]. But for your benefit, I’m giving them a plug now. Deep…

  • The Girl in the Painting – Dee White. Illustrated by Sarah Anthony.

    Walker Books Australia June 2025 ISBN13:9781760657444 Australia RRP:$26.99 New Zealand RRP:$28.99 Dee White is one of the most skilled creators I know – and, happily, I can call her my friend as well. Her talent, which ranges across dramatic middle grade novels to humorous narrative non-fiction, instructional primers for teachers and parents, magazine articles and…

  • Desert Tracks -Marly Wells & Linda Wells

    Magabala Books May 2025 978-1-922777-66-9 RRP. $22.99 What an absolutely sensational book this is! Easy to see why it won the Daisy Utemorrah Award! And I’m going to say right now, this is one you not only need for your collection, but need to actively promote to your staff, especially those of you looking to…

  • Tubowgule – a Sydney Opera House History – Melissa-Jane Fogarty. Illustrated by Dylan Finney.

    Hachette Australia Imprint: Lothian Books March 2025 9780734423351 | RRP $24.99 I’m old enough to have walked on Bennelong Point before the Opera House was built, and then walk around the construction site as the sails rose ever higher [not much WHS in those days, no fencing around the site!] picking up bits of broken white tile.…

  • A Good Kind of Trouble – Brooke Blurton and Melanie Saward

    Harper Collins Australia January 2024 This is another great novel coming from WA with fresh new voices and perspectives, and one of my most enjoyable reads of last year [I was reading the proof to write the teaching notes]. Jamie is a lively and intelligent girl who is very at ease with both her Aboriginality…