Just So Stories

Random Reviews and Ramblings from Redcliffe


  • Gloam – Jack MacKay

    Bloomsbury September 2025 Imprint: Oneworld ISBN: 9780861549528 RRP: $16.99 Sometimes a debut novel comes along that completely blows you away, and this would be one of those. I’m not a fan of horror, but I don’t mind a bit of creepy – this was actually quite a lot of creepy! and an enormously good read.…

  • My Dog – Olivia Wakeford

    the story of an extraordinary friendship Harper Collins Australia ISBN: 9780008658588 ISBN 10: 0008658587 Imprint: HarperCollins GB RRP: $17.99 This one I will say was at times, a bit too close to the bone for me. That being said, it is truly a special book that will touch the hearts of sophisticated primary readers and, I would suggest,…

  • Silver Linings – Katrina Nannestad

    Harper Collins Australia I cannot begin to tell you how impatiently I have waited to post this review. When I was invited to write teaching notes for a new Katrina Nannestad book, I was absolutely thrilled. Then, when I read the manuscript for this beautiful, funny, poignant, life-affirming narrative, I realised how easy it would…

  • Which Way Round the Galaxy – Cressida Cowell

    Hachette Australia SEP 26, 2023 | 9781444973501 | RRP $22.99 IMPRINT: Hodder Children’s Books I’ve absolutely adored Cressida Cowell’s previous series – along with millions of others – but this newest one is just so crackerjack that I really think it is my favourite so far. This is the second instalment in this firecracker fantasy/adventure which centres on the…

  • The Light in Everything – Katya Balen

    Bloomsbury Australia Bloomsbury Publishing Imprint: Bloomsbury Children’s Books July 2022 ISBN 9781526647405 RRP: $14.99 This is the third of Katya’s books I have read and honestly, I love her writing more each time. She has such skill in creating believable characters with whom the reader can easily connect and her deft hand in giving them…

  • Which Way to Anywhere – Cressida Cowell

    Hachette Australia September 2022 ISBN 9781444969047 | RRP $22.99 Well, if there’s anything more exciting in MG fiction than a new Cressida Cowell title, it’s a new Cressida Cowell series and this one is going to skyrocket I can assure you. K2 O’Hero (yes, he is named after the mountain) would appear, to all intents and purposes,…

  • The Year the Maps Changed – Danielle Binks

    Hachette Australia APR 28, 2020 | 9780734419712 | RRP $17.99 What a glorious book with so much richness as it reveals not only a tragic episode in recent history but explores the pain but beautiful bonding in a family and community. 1999 in Sorrento is a difficult time for Fred (Winifred). Her mother died when she was very little…

  • I Knew You Were Trouble A Jessie Jefferson Novel By Paige Toon

      Simon & Schuster Children’s UK | 336 pages | ISBN 9781471118807 | November 2015 List Price AU$ 16.99 NZ$ 18.99   The second in a series this is a light read for your senior girl readers. Full to the brim of parties, jetset lifestyles, rock and roll and hot boys this will appeal to…