Just So Stories

Random Reviews and Ramblings from Redcliffe


  • Nan and Me series – Natasha Weribone

    Nan, Why Don’t I Look Like You? – Book 1 Nan & Me Series Paperback ISBN:  978-1-7640638-0-7 Hardcopy ISBN: 978-1-7640638-7-6 Digital online ISBN: 978-1-7640638-5-2 Nan, Where Did We Come From? – Book 2 Nan & Me Series Paperback ISBN: 978-1-7640638-1-4 Hardcopy ISBN: 978-1-7640638-8-3 Digital online ISBN: 978-1-7640638-6-9 It gives me tremendous pleasure to start off this year’s NAIDOC reviews with these two titles…

  • Learning Country: a First Nations Journey Around Australia’s Traditional Place Names – Ryhia Dank

    Harper Collins Australia Ryhia Dank is a Gudanji/Wakaja woman who grew up in a remote community in the Gulf of Carpentaria. She got to know her Country though the stories her family told, and through walking in the places and footprints her family has travelled since the beginning. Her painting is storywork, and tells stories…

  • Desert Tracks -Marly Wells & Linda Wells

    Magabala Books May 2025 978-1-922777-66-9 RRP. $22.99 What an absolutely sensational book this is! Easy to see why it won the Daisy Utemorrah Award! And I’m going to say right now, this is one you not only need for your collection, but need to actively promote to your staff, especially those of you looking to…

  • Country Tells Us When… Written and Illustrated by Tsheena Cooper, Mary Dann, Dalisa Pigram-Ross and Sheree Ford.

    ILF Community Publishing  March 2023 ISBN:   9781922592460ISBN 10:   1922592463 9781922592484 (Karajarri), 9781922592477 (Mangala) RRP: $26.99 Community: Rubibi (Broome), WA Language: Yawuru The Yawuru people are the traditional owners of the lands and waters in and around Rubibi (the town of Broome). As more and more First Nations seasonal calendars are being shared with students, what a wonderful…

  • Earth Speak – Sean McCann. Illustrated by Jade Goodwin

    Boodjar Wangkiny Allen & Unwin ISBN:9781761181238 Imprint:A & U Children RRP: $26.99 I have been eagerly awaiting this one, having seen sneak peeks of Jade’s gorgeous illustrations in the interim. It is just as beautiful as it promised. As so many of us shake our heads over recent ignorant and ill-informed comments about Welcome to…

  • Brightest Wild – Tania Crampton-Larking

    Hachette Australia January 2025 9780734420657 | RRP $16.99 Imprint: Lothian Children’s Books This is a ‘bright’ start to a writing career for Tania Crampton-Larking, with a whole lot going on in this novel: loss/grief, moving/changes, mixed heritage families, family/changes to family, bullying, climate change, First Nations culture to mention a few. Alex and her mum move from…

  • The First Sunrise – Nessa Stevens. Paul Seder

    Magabala Books February 2025  9781922777553 | RRP $27.99 Hachette Australia I am always excited by First Nations books and I can’t think of a single one that hasn’t made me feel that way. But every now and then, one comes along that is really out of the box and this is one of those. There are a…

  • Our Dance – Jacinta Daniher & Taylor Hampton. Illustrations by Janelle Burger

    Hachette Australia Imprint: Lothian Children’s Books Apr 30, 2025 | 9780734423429 | RRP $24.99 As one might expect from this pair of collaborators this is cross-cultural learning made fun and exciting. Taylor Hampton, a proud Ngiyampaa/Wiradjuri man and Jacinta Daniher, an early childhood educator created Birrang Cultural Connections, to which I have previously made reference when I reviewed Our…

  • Tubowgule – a Sydney Opera House History – Melissa-Jane Fogarty. Illustrated by Dylan Finney.

    Hachette Australia Imprint: Lothian Books March 2025 9780734423351 | RRP $24.99 I’m old enough to have walked on Bennelong Point before the Opera House was built, and then walk around the construction site as the sails rose ever higher [not much WHS in those days, no fencing around the site!] picking up bits of broken white tile.…

  • Young Dark Emu: a Truer History – Bruce Pascoe

    Imprint: Magabala Books Hachette Books February 2025 ISBN: 9781922777508 RRP: $29.99 Eleven years ago this month, I had the great pleasure of reading and reviewing Dark Emu – Blackseeds: Accident or Agriculture? for Magabala and in that review, I commented on how much new information I gleaned from this detailed and knowledge-based account from a…