Just So Stories

Random Reviews and Ramblings from Redcliffe


  • Our Family Dragon: a Lunar New Year story – Rebecca Lim/Cai Tse

    Allen & Unwin November 2023 ISBN:9781761180637 Publisher:A&U Children’s Imprint:Albert Street Books RRP: $24.99 Of course we have had a few wonderful picture books focusing on Lunar New Year over the years, many of them in constant rotation for this celebration. But how lovely is it to have an exciting new one that, to my mind,…

  • Spellhound: a Dragons of Hallow #1 – Lian Tanner

    Allen & Unwin April 2023 ISBN:9781761180057 Publisher:A&U Children’s Imprint:A & U Children RRP: $17.99 I’m so remorseful that I didn’t get to this one sooner (one of the books that was shunted into a box during the great house move) because it is just wonderful! I love this intro from the publisher…A fascinating tale filled…

  • This Spells Trouble – Paul Collins/Sean McMullen

    Ford St Publishing July 2023 ISBN:9781922696311 RRP: $17.95 This is just a riotous, joyful comic adventure from the very first page, and, I tell you now, your kids from middle school to upper will eat it up with relish! 14 year old Winton is apprenticed to a very dodgy wizard named Faramond – a lazy,…

  • How to Train Your Dragon 20th Anniversary Edition: Book 1 – Cressida Cowell

    Hachette When this first arrived, aside from the fact that I was totally blown away by the gorgeous, shiny gold dust jacket, I thought – what the…? 20 years?? surely not! But then I stopped and realised that The Kid was five years old when the movie came out, and she, along with her mum…

  • Peppa Pig: Peppa’s Dragon Adventure

    Penguin Australia August 2022 We can always depend on Peppa and her family to provide us with warm fuzzies, plus imagination combined with happy reality. When George Pig doesn’t want to go to sleep, fearful of bad dreams, Daddy Pig tells a wonderful story about a dragon. Peppa and George enjoy the story so much,…

  • Dragon Skin – Karen Foxlee

    Allen & Unwin September 2021 ISBN:9781760526108 Imprint:A & U Children RRP: $19.99 One wouldn’t normally associate the outback mining town of Mt Isa with magic or dragons but Karen Foxlee’s newest novel for middle school readers makes this eminently plausible. How to save a dragon:1) Assemble equipment. Water, Weet-Bix, sugar, syringe, sticky tape, scissors.2) Believe…

  • A batch of board books

    My Best Friend is a Dragon – Rachael McLean Penguin Australia August 2020 ISBN: 9780593093993 Imprint: Penguin RRP: $13.99 The first of this batch of books for the tiniest reads is this delightful and gloriously vibrant lift-the-flap story. What could be better than having a magical dragon as your best friend? This little boy romps through the pages…

  • Dragon Apocalypse: City of Monsters #3 – DC Green

    Sep 2018 Ford Street Publishing 9781925272680 AUD$19.95, NZD$24.99   DC, you have completely smashed it with this thrilling conclusion to the trilogy – darker, edgier and gripping!  I’ve watched with such joy as the Dead Gang monster misfits have grown from their funky beginnings to truly kickass warriors united in their mission to save not…

  • Bronze Bird Tower: Dragonkeeper #6 – Carole Wilkinson

    Walker Books ISBN: 9781925381412 Imprint: Black Dog Books March 2017 Australian RRP: $24.99 In 2002 Carole Wilkinson introduced us to a small downtrodden Chinese girl with no name and a marvellous world of beautiful, mysterious and terrible dragons. Set in ancient China where dragon hunters and warring feudal lords, oppression of the miserable poor and contemptuous dismissal of…

  • The Dragon with a Chocolate Heart: Stephanie Burgis. Illustrated by Freya Harris

    Bloomsbury March 2017 ISBN 9781408880319 RRP $14.99   It’s often not easy being the youngest in the family particularly when your older siblings are considered by all to be brilliant and talented. Arguably it’s even harder to be the baby of a dragon family without the hardened scales or working wings that would allow you…