Just So Stories

Random Reviews and Ramblings from Redcliffe

  • Betsy & Bon: Three Sweet Stories – Simon Howe

    UQP September 2026 ISBN: 9780702268953 RRP: $26.99 Here’s a little book that will absolutely delight younger readers (and very likely, older ones as well) because it is as sweet as the title suggests. It is delightfully pretty with the cutest of cute characters and the problems faced by these little critters are certainly very real…

  • Amira Swift: #1Talent Show, #1 Fair Day Fun – Sarah Ayoub. Nina Nill.

    Harper Collins Australia Imprint: HarperCollins AU July 2026 Series: Amira Swift RRP: $15.99 Classroom Resource Talent Show ISBN: 9781460766675 Fair Day Fun ISBN: 9781460766682 And here comes another new series for your younger readers who, I predict, will fall in love with Amira, her family and her friends along with her everyday adventures. This is just delightful as it…

  • Eighty-Nine Questions for After – Ashleigh Barton

    Hachette Australia July 2026 ISBN: 9780733654596 RRP: $16.99 I first knew Ashleigh’s work as a picture book creator, one who could create wonderful texts that not only engaged young readers but gave them portals into the larger world. Then along came her middle-grade novel How to Sail to Somewhere which so skilfully demonstrated that her…

  • The Wild Unknown – Emily Gale

    Text Publishing April 2026 ISBN: 9781923058835 AU Price$16.99 NZ Price$21.00 In 2045 life is familiar but also not. If we think technology and AI is pervasive now, in the near-future that Emily Gale has conceived it’s inescapable, compulsory and deeply rooted within society. Eddie’s world is one filled with ‘smart’ technology from the smart windows…

  • The Clueless Guide to Solving a Mystery: Clueless #1 – Samera Kamaleddine. Illustrations by Hykie Breeze.

    Harper Collins Australia May 2026 ISBN: 9781460767443 RRP: $17.99 MG readers will thoroughly enjoy meeting Claudia as she has an extended stay with her grandparents in their retirement village. The residents make for hilarious friends with their various quirks but it is when ‘the cousins’, Yasmin and Zayn, come to visit their own grandmother that her…

  • Mim and the Frazzled Fruit Farmer: The Travelling Bookshop #7 – Katrina Nannestad. Illustrated by Cheryl Orsini

    Harper Collins Australia February 202 ISBN: 9780733343131 ISBN 10: 0733343139 Imprint: ABC Books AU List Price: 16.99 AUD No doubt there will be many young readers who will be sad to know that this is the final chapter in this entertaining series but, dare I say, knowing Katrina’s fertile imagination and creativity there is sure to be something new…

  • Lily Tripp: Diary of an Accidental Time Traveller – Amelia Tait

    Hachette Australia Imprint: Starboard May 5, 2026 | 9781444931983 | RRP $16.99 Well yes, it is another ‘diary’ of a tween title but at least this one really does have a point of difference. Lily Tripp, aged almost 13, has developed an unfortunate ability. Several times now she has spontaneously time-travelled on New Year’s Eve. She’s been in ancient…

  • The Private Side of Friendship – Alexander McCall-Smith

    New South Books Publisher: Polygon 9781846977299 February 2026 AUD$39.99, NZD$44.99 This a stand-alone novel from A M-S that is utterly typical of his gentle story-telling with expert characterisations and with small details that bring his narratives to life. Travelling in time back to the 80s, 24-year-old Julie recalls the happy times spent in a shared…

  • Making Trouble (A Good Kind of Trouble #2) – Brooke Blurton. Melanie Saward.

    Harper Collins Australia March 2026 ISBN: 9781460761502 ISBN 10: 1460761502 Imprint: HarperCollins AU RRP: $19.99 Following up last year’s A Good Kind of Trouble, Brooke Blurton continues the journey of the Noongar girls from the bush, this time with the focus on Stella as she and Jamie head to the big smoke to continue their education under the…

  • Ella and the Mystery of the Missing Frogs – Cassy Polimeni. Illustrated by Hykie Breeze.

    UWA Publishing Distributed by Simon & Schuster March 2026 ISBN13: 9781760803193 RRP: AU$ 15.99 / NZ$ 18.99 #3 in the Ella’s froggy series is another engaging read for those early chapter books readers in your circle – the ones who are growing more confident with their sustained reading. Each of these charmers has presented a…