Just So Stories

Random Reviews and Ramblings from Redcliffe

  • Three Dresses – Wanda Gibson

    UQP April 2024 ISBN: 9780702266355 RRP: $26.99 As soon as I saw this book, I wanted to review it as I knew it would be both beautiful and poignant. I’ve not been to Hopevale or Woorabinda, only as far as Cairns, but I know people who have both been and worked there. I have though,…

  • Doubles Disaster: Ash Barty Tennis Camp Diaries #1 – Ash Barty, Jasmin McGaughey. Illustrated by Jade Goodwin.

    Harper Collins Australia July 2024 ISBN: 9781460762745 ISBN 10: 1460762746 Imprint: HarperCollins AU RRP: $15.99 Your junior readers who have been gobbling up the Little Ash series are going to go nuts when they see this and realise that a whole new series, another step up the reading ladder, is happening! Ash is very excited that she’s been…

  • Yirrkala Bark Petitions

    The Yirrkala Bark Petitions are a series of petitions from the Yolngu people to the Commonwealth government. They are seen as the first documents that joined Indigenous Lore with Commonwealth Law as the petitions are the first traditional documents to have been recognised by the Commonwealth Parliament. The Yolngu people are the people of Yirrkala…

  • NAIDOC 2024 Keep the Fire Burning! Blak, Loud and Proud!

    Gaywambana! Welcome to 2024 NAIDOC @ Just So Stories. As well as this curation of resources, a week of reviews of new First Nations titles and Q&As is ahead. Do make sure to check what’s happening in your local area. The Kid and I are all set to go to her local ATSICHS clinic’s special…

  • Wurrtoo: the wombat who fell in love with the sky – Tylissa Elisara. Illustrated by Dylan Finney

    Hachette Imprint: Lothian Children’s Books MAR 27, 2024 | 9780734421982 | RRP $19.99 I read this charming little book quite a few weeks ago but wanted to save it for this week. The publishers describe it as a cross between Winnie-the-Pooh and Blinky Bill. For me, yes, a little Blinky Bill for sure, but I mostly felt a vibe…

  • Mimi and Buwaarr/Mother and Baby – Melissa Greenwood

    Harper Collins Australia March 2024 ISBN: 9780733343018 ISBN 10: 0733343015 Imprint: ABC Books AU RRP: $24.99 Being your miimi (mother) is the most precious gift life can give. When you were born you opened my heart as wide as the ocean. Every new Melissa Greenwood book I see I love, and think – they can’t possibly get any…

  • National Reconciliation Week 2024 & Sorry Day

    My beautiful friend, Kirsty, asked me if I had some suggested titles/resources for Reconciliation Week and that was a prompt for me to create another post focused on First Nations titles and resources. I did also post one in 2023. Of course, there are [now] many books and resources to encourage cross-cultural embedding in your…

  • When the World was Soft: Yindjibarndi Creation Stories – Juluwarlu Group Aboriginal Corporation. Illustrated by Alex Mankiewicz.

    Allen & Unwin April 2024 ISBN:9781761180651 Publisher:A&U Children’s Imprint:A & U Children RRP: $34.99 Creation – Ngurra Nyujunggamu Wedgetailed Eagle, Crow and Black Kite – Jargurrungu Wangangga GarranygaNyinkara the StonemanPelican and Quail – Jiruna YuyaBunggaliyarra – FallenBarrimirndi Most would know that I read and review every First Nations children’s book I can get my hands…

  • The Wonder of Small Things (Young Readers edition) – Vince Copley with Lea McInerney

    Harper Collins Australia January 2024 ISBN: 9781460714843 ISBN 10: 1460714849 Imprint: ABC Books RRP: $12.99 Most readers of this blog know that my kids and grandies are Aboriginal – Wiradjuri mob. For my thirty+ years of teaching, I’ve been a learner of cross-cultural knowledge, embedded these perspectives in my teaching programmes and availed myself of every opportunity to…

  • For 60 000 Years- Maree Silva. Illustrator Rhys Paddick

    Scholastic Australia January 2024 ISBN: 9781760265274 RRP: $26.99 I am the first to say we are privileged to live in Australia, and I am grateful to have been born here. There is so much for which to be grateful, but there are also times I am ashamed of our national behaviour and attitudes (there will…