Just So Stories

Random Reviews and Ramblings from Redcliffe

  • Losing the Plot – Annaleise Byrd

    Walker Books Australia March 2024 ISBN13:9781760656409 Australia RRP:$16.99 New Zealand RRP:$18.99 It certainly gives me great pleasure to review this debut middle-grade novel from local (and indeed, almost neighbour) Annaleise Byrd. Your readers of such titles as Pages & Co and Inkspell, in which literature and real life mix and meld, will love this new…

  • Not-So-Little Red Riding Hood – Michael Rosen. Illustrated by David Melling.

    Harper Collins Australia October 2023 Honestly, when have you ever read anything less than wonderful by Michael Rosen? Exactly! This is a really fun update on the traditional fairy tale, that will sit beautifully with a unit of work on fractured fairytales or innovations on traditional stories, as well as being just plain fun to…

  • Shockingly Good Stories – R. A. Spratt

    Penguin Australia ISBN: 9781761043376 Imprint: Puffin RRP: $19.99 The hilarious author, R. A. Spratt, knows well that her stories make me snort laugh in an extremely undignified manner. I do my utmost to keep these moments private as I have noted that when reading hilarious stories from what is obviously a kids’ book on a train full of…

  • I am So Clever – Mario Ramos

      Walker Books August 2019 ISBN:  9781776572496 Imprint: Gecko Press Australian RRP: $16.99 New Zealand RRP: $19.99 In my experience kids just love send ups of the Big Bad Wolf and this book will delight those from 4 years upwards with its humorous text and illustrations, along with the references to other fairy tales. Little Red Riding Hood…

  • Wolfie: an Unlikely Hero – Deborah Abela/Connah Brecon

    Penguin Random House ISBN 9780143781509 May 1, 2017 Random House Australia Children’s RRP $24.99 One thing I’ve learned in my years of being a teacher-librarian is that all kids, big and little, love fractured fairy tales. Wolfie is fed up with fairy tales promoting the nonsense that wolves are the bad guys. He’s determined to…

  • The Adventures of Alfie Onion – Vivian French: illustrated by Matra Kissi

          Walker Books   Imprint: WALKER PAPERBACK   ISBN: 9781406363104 Published: 05 May 2016 Price: $14.99   Fractured fairytales are a popular writing task in many schools. In the past week the secondary girls in my ‘home’ school are writing them and in one of the local primaries in which I did a supply…

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