Just So Stories

Random Reviews and Ramblings from Redcliffe

  • The Silken Thread – Gabrielle Wang

    Penguin Australia July 2025 ISBN: 9781761350740 Imprint: Penguin RRPP: $17.99 This beautiful new novel from former Laureaute and multi-award winner, Gabrielle Wang, is an absolutely outstanding, and almost mystical, exploration of East meets West. It is not a time-slip but rather a shift in the universe, from Chongming Island in China to Melbourne, Australia, with two very…

  • Say My Name – Joanna Ho. Illustratated by Khoa Le.

    Harper Collins Australia October 2023 ISBN: 9780063205338 ISBN 10: 0063205335 Imprint: HarperCollins US RRP: $24.99 Another one I’ve been saving with anticipation for this month! We have come to expect sheer lyrical text accompanied by stunning illustrations, along with the cross-cultural themes, from Joanna Ho’s picture books. This one continues with a wonderful exploration of rich traditions, language…

  • Two Sparrowhawks in a Lonely Sky – Rebecca Lim

    Allen & Unwin August 2023 ISBN: 9781761180224 Publisher: A&U Children’s Imprint: A & U Children RRP: $23.99 Like many others, I have read both fictional and factual accounts of the extreme hardship and brutality of Mao Zedong’s Great Leap Forward, an ill-conceived scheme to bring China to an ideal Communist Utopia. It resulted in the…

  • Beijing Tai Tai – Tania McCartney

    Exisle Publishing 2012 ISBN: 9781921966156 RRP: $14.99 I first met Tania when she came to my Canberra school as our author guest around ten years ago, and she and I just clicked from the first moment we spoke to each other. Since then it has been my honour and pleasure to be her friend. I…