Just So Stories

Random Reviews and Ramblings from Redcliffe

  • 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…

  • Amazing Australians in Their Flying Machines

    By Prue Mason and Kerry Mason Illustrated by Tom Jellett ISBN: 9781922244635 Imprint: Walker Books Australia April 1, 2017 Australian RRP: $24.99 Daughter of an RAF Lancaster WO/AG and with a dear friend who was a Squadron Leader, then a commercial pilot (RIP Dad and Wal), you might think I’d be across most of Australia’s aviation history.  Instead, I find that…

  • Australia Illustrated – Tania McCartney

    Exisle Publishing November 2016 ISBN 9781925335217 RRP $29.99   Five years ago while the teacher-librarian at Red Hill Primary, Canberra, I invited a local author about whom I had heard good things to come on an author visit to talk about her popular ‘Riley’ picture books.  Elegant Tania McCartney walked into my library and we…

  • On the River – Roland Harvey

    Allen & Unwin ISBN: 9781760112455 Imprint: A & U Children  July 2016 RRP $24.99   “The book is about the Murray River, from top to bottom. The system is vitally important to graziers, food growers, communities for drinking and domestic use, for irrigation, for hydro power, for recreation and for the health of the environment…

  • The Hero Maker: A Biography of Paul Brickhill

    The Hero Maker: A Biography of Paul Brickhill The Australian behind the legendary stories The Dam Busters, The Great Escape and Reach for the Sky By Stephen Dando-Collins Penguin Random House ISBN 9780857988126 August 29, 2016 Imprint : Vintage Australia RRP: $34.99   As the daughter of a Lancaster wireless operator/air gunner growing up in the…

  • Yong : the journey of an unworthy son – Janeen Brian

    ISBN: 9781925126297 Imprint: WALKER BOOKS AUST Distributor: Harper Collins Distribution Services for Australia and New Zealand August 1, 2016 RRP $16.99 There have been many accounts of the Chinese coming to Australia in the gold rush era both for adults and children but this is the first I have read which explores the history of some of these…

  • The Lost Sapphire – Belinda Murrell

    ISBN: 9781925324112 Published: 16/05/2016 Imprint: Random House Australia Children’s RRP $17.99 Once again Belinda Murrell has set her readers’ feet upon a path to the past with an ease that is breathtaking. When Marli’s mother has to go overseas for work for several months, the teenager is sent to stay with her estranged father in Melbourne, doing so…

  • Barney and the Secret of the Whales – Jackie French

    ISBN: 9780732299446 ISBN 10: 0732299446 Imprint: HarperCollins – AU On Sale: 01/02/2016 Pages: 144 List Price: 12.99 AUD   Is there any other author who has such a deft hand at bringing Australian history alive for young readers as Jackie French? It appears this much –loved and well-respected writer is unsurpassed in this particular genre (not to mention all her other…

  • Not Your Usual Bushrangers – Peter Macinnis

    Five Mile Press ISBN: 9781760065690 Published: July 2015 Imprint: Echo Publishing RRP: $34.95 Many years ago my dad handed me a copy of Frank Clune’s ‘The Wild Colonial Boys’ saying “You should read this.” – a common occurrence as we shared both a literary taste and an interest in colonial history. From that moment I…