Just So Stories

Random Reviews and Ramblings from Redcliffe

  • Tiny Dancer – Patrick Guest. Mateja Jager

    Westwords Imprint : Peribo August 2025 ISBN: 9781923044364 RRP: $27.99 While it’s not a ‘bird’ book like the other two in today’s post, it seems most appropriate to include this gentle and beautiful fable with its winged heroine, Konomi, with those. Some of you may have read my review of Shirley Marr’s One Day earlier this year,…

  • R.I.P. Nanny Tobbins – Lucie Stevens

    Harper Collins Australia June 2025 ISBN: 9781460766521 ISBN 10: 1460766520 $16.99 It’s one thing having a strict but kind and fair Nanny who is alive – and quite another when that Nanny is dead. Nine-year-old Albertine is a sweet child, who is without a mother but with a very loving and protective father. He is, in fact,…

  • Gone – Michel Streich

    Thames & Hudson Australia Pty Ltd  3rd June 2025 ISBN: 9781760764920 ISBN-10: 1760764922 RRP: $26.00 As you might expect, if you are familiar with our story, grief after the loss of her mother was an enormous obstacle for The Kid and I both ten years ago. At least I had, at my fingertips, a range of titles…

  • The Gift of a Good Death Our palliative dementia story – Lisa Twigg

    November 2024 I had great pleasure in reviewing Lisa’s first book 80 Years Without Dementia last year, not only because she is one of our friends from Redcliffe SLS but also because her story touches so many lives. This is particularly so for those of us who are older and have had the heartache of…

  • The Undead Fox of Deadwood Forest – Aubrey Hartman

    Walker Books Australia May 2025 ISBN:9781761601453 RRP: $17.99/New Zealand RRP:$19.99 Now, how to describe this delightfully quirky and sometimes dark quasi-horror with heart? It’s a little bit My Dead Rabbit, maybe a little bit Coraline, and a little bit The Graveyard Book. And then there’s A Girl Called Corpse – and soon you will get…

  • Little Bones – Sandy Bigna

    UQP March 2025 9780702268878 RRPP: $16.99 I know I’m repeating myself, but I preface this again with the fact that I’ve never been a huge fan of verse novels. But I can tell you, we have some amazing creators who are changing my mind about that. This debut title from Sandy Bigna is hands-down one…

  • It’s Not Summer Without You – Jenny Han

    Book 2 in the Summer I Turned Pretty Series April 2023 Twelve years after its initial release, the second in Jenny Han’s Summer trilogy is the third of her books to be adapted for the screen, and little wonder as these have been some of the hottest books in the secondary library/young adult stakes. Belly…

  • A Little Spark – Barry Jonsberg

    Allen & Unwin August 2022 Imprint:A & U Children ISBN:9781760526924 RRP: $16.99 But, as can happen, life throws a curveball. Sam is offered a tantalising and life-changing work opportunity in the UK and Cate’s mum is determined they will all go. Cate is resistant to the whole idea, not least because she knows she will…

  • The Ghost Locket – Allison Rushby

    Walker Books April 1st 2022 ISBN: 9781760654153Imprint: Walker Books AustraliaDistributor: Walker AustraliaBinding:Release Date: April 1, 2022 Australian RRP: $17.99New Zealand RRP: $19.99 Allison Rushby has repeatedly proven her gift for suspenseful spookiness for middle-grade readers and this new book, in my opinion, might just have tipped the scales of my favourite so far. Eleven-year-old Lolli (Olivia) has never known her mother,…

  • We Were Wolves – Jason Cockcroft

    Walker Books Australia June 2021 ISBN: 9781839130571Imprint: Andersen PressAustralian RRP: $26.99New Zealand RRP: $28.99 There are some seriously fabulous YA books coming out of the UK recently – and I’m not trying to take anything away from our local authors at all – it’s just that every single UK title I’ve read, probably in the…