Just So Stories

Random Reviews and Ramblings from Redcliffe

  • The Ghost of Howler’s Beach (The Butter O’Bryan Mysteries #1)  – Jackie French

    Harper Collins Australia February 2020 ISBN: 9781460757727 ISBN 10: 1460757726 List Price: 16.99 AUD   To most folks Butter O’Bryan would seem a lucky boy.  In a time when many people are destitute and homeless he lives in a large and comfortable house, known as the Very Small Castle, he has three eccentric but loving aunts –  known…

  • Will the Wonderkid: Treasure Hunter of the Australian Outback – Stephanie Owen Reeder

      National Library of  Australia February 2020 ISBN:   9780642279521 RRP: $24.99 I adore this series! In Heritage Heroes, Reeder not only takes her readers on adventures but provides rich fodder for hunters of history. Each volume has explored the (often unknown) achievements of young Australian people of the past in a fictionalised narrative which is lavishly…

  • Clancy of the Overflow (The Matilda Saga #9) – Jackie French

    Harper Collins October 2019 ISBN: 9781460754771 ISBN 10: 1460754778 Imprint: HarperCollins – AU List Price: 29.99 AUD This little hobby of mine has brought me so much richness. I’m able to read the newest titles from so many fabulous creators. But as you probably have realised I stand in complete awe of our maven of literature for children, teens…

  • Pirate Boy of Sydney Town – Jackie French

    Harper Collins ISBN: 9781460754795 ISBN 10: 1460754794 Imprint: HarperCollins – AU May 2019 RRP: 16.99 AUD Just a few weeks ago I reviewed the third in Jackie’s Miss Lily series and now it’s another superb historical fiction, plus I have two others on my review shelf. I begin to wonder when the woman sleeps! Her prodigious output, the diversity…

  • Mamie – Tania McCartney

      Harper Collins November 2018 ISBN: 9781460755860 ISBN 10: 1460755863 RRP $24.99 In this the centenary celebration year of May Gibbs’ iconic Australian children’s book, Tales of Snugglepot and Cuddlepie , how perfectly timely it is to have a new book which brings the creator to life for younger readers. When May first wrote her stories she…

  • The Secret of the Youngest Rebel (The Secret Histories #5) – Jackie French

    Harper Collins Available: 21st January 2019 ISBN: 9781460754801 RRP: $14.99   If you have not yet set about acquiring Jackie’s enthralling Secret Histories series it is definitely time to catch up to it. As this school year peters out and we limp towards the finish line, some are already thinking about 2019 and our support of our…

  • Inheritance – Carole Wilkinson

    Walker Books ISBN: 9781760650360 Imprint: Black Dog Books Release Date: September 1, 2018 Australian RRP: $17.99 New Zealand RRP: $19.99 Carole Wilkinson has created a superbly plausible narrative which realistically weaves historic realism from Australia’s past from the perspective of both First Australians and early white settlers putting an ugly side to the beginnings of our modern nation in full…

  • Digby & Claude – Emma Allen & Hannah Sommerville

    Publisher:   National Library of Australia Edition:   1st Edition ISBN:   9780642279279 Publication Date:   01 August 2018 RRP $24.99 When Emma Allen read an old newspaper article about ‘family friendly’ flats being built in Erskineville back in the 1930s she was inspired to create a picture book which reflected not only a child’s appreciation of their own place…

  • Barney and the Secret of the French Spies – Jackie French

    Harper Collins Australia ISBN: 9781460751305 ISBN 10: 1460751302 On Sale: 22/01/2018 List Price: 14.99 AUD Another gripping episode in the story of Barney and Elsie, providing readers with more insight into the early days of the European colony in Sydney and NSW and I’m so excited that next term I’m using Birrung the Secret Friend with my Year 4s…

  • Sweet Adversity – Sheryl Gwyther

       TBC Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers (Australia) Pty Ltd ISBN: 9781460755105 ISBN-10: 1460755103 RRP : $17.99   In her new historical novel Sheryl Gwyther takes  readers on a dramatic, sometimes tense and often poignant adventure to a grim time in Australia’s past – the Great Depression. While the Wall St collapse impacted all around the world, Australia suffered terribly…