Just So Stories

Random Reviews and Ramblings from Redcliffe

  • For Little Jarjums

    Two delightful little board books for your Smallest of Smalls from Fremantle Press today. SO cute!!! Kep Barna: Water Creatures [#2 Noongar First Words series} – Jayden Boundry/Tyrown Waigana February 2026 ISBN: 9781760995591 RRP: AU$16.99/NZ$21.00/US$12.95 Once again your Smalls can learn some new words in Noongar accompanied by their English counterparts, this time of a variety…

  • Fremantle Press extravaganza!!

    Coming up for its 50th anniversary Fremantle Press may be small but it sure is mighty! SO many fabulous books across all genres have come from this outstanding independent publishing house. It has always been a pleasure to review their titles but I was super excited yesterday (11/02) to get several parcels from them, loaded…

  • The Midnight Chew -Sally Morgan. Karen Blair.

    Fremantle Press October 2025 ISBN 9781760995096 RRP: AU $24.99/ NZ$30/ US $17.95 A happy-go-lucky sort of doggo book from Sally Morgan with definite echoes of Hairy Maclary and his gang, as Skippy Gillespie slips out of his yard in the dead of night to go rummage in the rubbish for his bone. Boofa Boy Jones…

  • A New World Rises: Tales of a LEGO® Future – Jackson Harvey & Alex Towler with Cristy Burne.

    Fremantle Press August 2025 ISBN: 9781760994167 RRP: AU $44.99/NZ$50.00/US$34.95 Like millions of others, I’ve had my fair share of LEGO® in my life, starting with my girls, then grandies and certainly, numerous times in my libraries with LEGO® free-range activities and clubs both construction and stop motion film. I have run competitions for Book Week (recreate…

  • Ningaloo

    For those of us who have loved Tim Winton’s Blueback since it was first released in 1997 [can you believe that?? eek!], the Ningaloo reef and the continuing struggle to preserve it has always been an issue of real concern. Even The Kid has taken interest since first seeing the film version of Blueback a…

  • Boodja Barna – Land Creatures: Noongar First Words – Jayden Boundry. Tyrown Waigana.

    Fremantle Press June 2024 ISBN: 9781760995317 RRP: $16.99 This is the first of a new series and it is absolutely adorable 💗. Whether this is the language of the traditional owners in your part of the country or not, this makes for a really sweet read for tiny Smalls. To my mind, it’s no matter if…

  • Goldfields Girl: the Clara Saunders Story – Elaine Forrestal

    Fremantle Press February 2025 ISBN: 9781760994969 RRP: $17.99 When Goldfields Girl was first published in 2020, I acquired it for our collection and then never got around to reading it. Now it’s been reissued with this [IMO] far more engaging cover [I think it just illustrates Clara’s jaunty and resilient personality more] and I’m very happy…

  • Soaring with the Sugarbird Lady: the Robin Miller Story – Dianne Wolfer

    Fremantle Press March 2025 ISBN: 978176099527 RRP: $17.99 My love of historical fiction knows no bounds as when I come across a hitherto unknown episode, particularly of the Australian + women variety. Dianne Wolfer has introduced me to a young woman who was an absolute stand-out – in Dianne’s own words ‘a trailblazer for women, winging…

  • The Boab Tree – Helen Milroy

    Fremantle Press October 2024 ISBN: 9781760994631 RRP: $24.99 Once again Helen Milroy brings together many threads into a modern fable that echoes traditional Dreaming stories. When it is time for baby Boab to drop down to earth and begin his own life and family, his plummet is interrupted by a passing eagle, who swoops by directly…

  • Father of the Lost Boys for Younger Readers: The Mecak Ajang Alaak Story – Yuot A. Alaak

    Fremantle Press June 2024 ISBN: 9781760993900 RRP: $17.99 When I was commissioned to write the teaching notes for this, I confess I only knew a smidgin about the Sudanese ‘lost boys’, and, in fact, the whole Sudan situation – despite the fact that we have many Sudanese immigrants here in SE Qld. Their story was certainly…