Just So Stories

Random Reviews and Ramblings from Redcliffe

  • Shakespeare in the Orchard – Danielle Binks

    Hachette Australia Imprint: Lothian Children’s Books Jul 7, 2026 | 9780734421920 | RRP $17.99 It took me a while to get into this one as the first chapters seemed to move slowly but once it got going, I was thoroughly engaged with this fictionalised slice of history, hitherto unknown to me. That is to say, naturally I knew about…

  • Hitler’s Daughter 25th Anniversary – Jackie French

    Harper Collins Australia July 2024 When I took this out of the parcel I was aghast – at the fact of it being 25 years since I first read this, one of Jackie’s most loved MG books. I sent her a message saying so and she replied that she found it hard to believe as…

  • Anzac Ted -(10th Anniversary edition): Belinda Landsberry

    EK Books March 2024 ISBN: 9781922539755 RRP: $29.99 Sometimes appearances are misleading, as adults we know that. So for some children who see a battered, raggedy and worn-out teddy bear with missing parts, it would be natural to be dismissive or even contemptuous. My own Tedward is, after 67 years, in a pretty sad and sorry…

  • Alfred’s War – Rachel Bin Salleh/Samantha Fry

    Magabala Books April 2018 ISBN: 9781925360608 RRP $19.99 The Australian War Memorial archives suggest that between 1 000 and 1 300 Indigenous men and women served during World War 1 (just as an unknown number had volunteered for the Boer War earlier in the century) despite not even being accorded as citizens of their own…

  • The Silver Hand – Terry Deary

    Bloomsbury Australia July 2018ISBN: 9781472929488 Imprint: Bloomsbury Education Series: Flashbacks RRP $14.99 We all know Terry Deary’s expertise in bring history to life – witness the success of Horrible Histories. Now he turns his hand to a lesser explored part of history in the closing days of the First World War, examining this through the…

  • Not a book – a movie

    Many of you will have read articles particularly fairly recently about the real life bear who inspired A. A. Milne’s classic stories about Winnie-the-Pooh. A recently published picture book sparked some of these. I was so delighted to pick up the DVD of the movie ‘A Bear Named Winnie’ at the local  Km*** last Friday…