Just So Stories

Random Reviews and Ramblings from Redcliffe


  • The Friendship Book – Zanni Louise

    Walker Books Australia November 2025 ISBN13:9781760658106 Australia RRP:$24.99 New Zealand RRP:$27.99 Zanni has been very busy this year! And here is yet another of her new releases (another one is coming up in review shortly). I don’t know about you but for me this time of year would always see me planning for the following…

  • The Cubbies: the battle for Australia’s first adventure playground – Joan Healey

    Monash University Publishing Publication Date: Aug 2024 RRP: $36.99 ISBN: 9781922979698 Sometimes it is really marvellous how things come your way. Just over a week ago I was writing some teaching notes for a forthcoming JF in which a cubby is featured, and, as is my wont, I was rootling around for info or inspo…

  • Just Like You/Bitjan Nhankuna Nhe – Natashia Curtin

    Walker Books Australia August 2024 ISBN13:9781760658069 Australia RRP:$25.99 New Zealand RRP:$27.99 I absolutely love this 💚 and, though it’s not due for release for another couple of weeks, it is perfect to share during this week of NAIDOC specials. Natashia Curtin grew up in Arnhem Land, Northern Territory, in a Yolngu community called Ramingining. As…

  • In My Garden – Kate Mayes. Tamsin Ainslie

    ….a children’s picture book about belonging Harper Collins Australia August 2023 It was easy to fall in love with this beautiful book when I only had the galley proofs to look at. Now that I see it in its final form, I find it even more enchanting. It really is a work of art, which…

  • Who’s the Gang on Our Street? – Susanne Gervay. Illustrated by Nancy Bevington.

    Big Sky Publishing September 2023 ISBN: 9781922896803 RRP: $19.99 When the always gracious and warm Susanne emailed me some months ago, and asked me to write teaching notes for a new picture book she was writing, I was – quite naturally – absolutely thrilled and flattered,that she should consider me to do so. When she subsequently…

  • The Perilous Promotion of Trilby Moffat: Book 2 – Kate Temple

    Hachette July 2023  9780734420923 | RRP $16.99 | Imprint: Lothian Books I was getting a little worried I wasn’t going to get this one to review, and I have been waiting patiently for it since the day I finished the first one, but yayyyyyyy!! – thank you Hachette – for getting it to me (on Friday and…

  • 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,…

  • All Are Welcome – Alexandra Penfold/Suzanne Kaufman

    Bloomsbury Australia February 2019 ISBN: 9781526604071 Imprint: Bloomsbury Children RRP: $14.99 I deliberately saved this one to time with Harmony Day since it is a perfect expression of what we want to convey to our children as they grow up in a world where so many adults are blindly ignorant of the true meaning of…