Just So Stories

Random Reviews and Ramblings from Redcliffe

  • My Country – Ezekiel Kwaymullina & Sally Morgan

    The board book edition… Fremantle Press August 2026 9781925816075 RRP: $15.00 Just a heads up that My Country is now available in a board book edition – so even the smallest of Smalls can enjoy it’s vibrant colours and lovely text!

  • Noongar Boodja Waangkan/Noongar First Words – Jayden Boundry & Tyrown Waigana

    Fremantle Press October 2026 ISBN: 9781760997632 RRP: $26.99 Oh these books from Jayden and Tyrown are just adorable as well as being such excellent cultural learning resources. And this one is especially cute being pitched at a slightly older audience ready for a longer book. This one covers a wide vocabulary of Noongar words for for…

  • Colour Me – Ezekiel Kwaymullina & Moira Court

    Fremantle Press August 2026 ISBN: 9781760996666 RRP: $19.99 ‘There’s a book for that!’ – teaching your Smalls about diversity and inclusion? teaching your smalls about figurative language like similes? teaching your Smalls about verbs? teaching your Smalls about animals? teaching your Smalls about cross-cultural perspectives? teaching your Smalls that some books are just like a poem…

  • Little Blue Where Are You? – Sally Morgan. Karen Blair.

    Fremantle Press September 2026 ISBN: 9781760997182 RRP: $27.99 Sally Morgan’s long career as both a children’s and adults’ writer covers such a range of genres that it is astonishing. From board books to non-fiction memoir and everything in between. There are surprisingly some folk who don’t realise quite the extent of her prolific work and, particularly,…

  • Old Bertie – Perrella & Osborn

    Fremantle Press August 2026 ISBN: 9781760996390 RRP: $24.99 This is 100% completely bonkers but I mean that in the most positive way possible. This is dystopia as you’ve never read it before. If you imagine – and forgive me for showing my age – humour such as that of Young Einstein or The Castle – that…

  • I Call the Ocean Wardan – Ebony Froome. Illustrated by Dellas Bennel and Korrine Bennel-Yarran.

    Fremantle Press September 2026 ISBN: 9781760996307 RRP: $26.99 Re-posting this now that NAIDOC is here on the blog! Celebrate NAIDOC Week 2026 with Fremantle Press • Beach Buddies (Helen Milroy)• Milly Meelyu (Holly Bradley, Darryl Fogarty, illus Corinne Fogarty)• Worl Barna: Sky Creatures (Jayden Boundry, illus Tyrown Waigana)• Kep Barna: Water Creatures (Jayden Boundry, illus Tyrown…

  • Term 2 Between the Wines at Quick Brown Fox

    I haven’t been ‘going’ far from home given the uncertainty of petrol for a while and I have certainly missed my bookish events but absolutely couldn’t pass up the chance for last night’s BtW with Peter Carnavas, James Foley, Jayne McIntyre and the added bonus of Katrina Nannestad popping in. As usual, it was a…

  • A Great Piratical Rumbustification

    Ok yes, we do know that pirates have been romanticised over the years and we also know that there are pirates in the modern world, including the ones in office politically but there is absolutely no denying that fictional pirates still hold a real fascination for readers both young and old. As it happens, three…

  • Worl Barna / Sky Creatures: Noongar First Words – Jayden Boundry. Tyrown Waigana.

    Fremantle Press June 2026 ISBN: 9781760995607 RRP: $16.99 I’ve reviewed two others in this delightful series for Smallests: Land Creatures and Water Creatures which some of you may have already seen. If not, really this is a terrific series for introducing jarjums to language, even if it’s not the one from the Country on which they…

  • Milly Meelyu – Holly Bradley & Darryl Fogarty. Illustrated by Corinne Fogarty.

    Fremantle Press February 2026 ISBN: 9781760996314 RRP: $24.99 For years now we have seen children and schools becoming more actively interested in conservation and caring for the environment and wildlife. It’s now well over 30 years since my first teaching gig with Year 5 when I created a literature-based unit of inquiry based on Fern Gully,…