Just So Stories

Random Reviews and Ramblings from Redcliffe

  • The Hullabaloo about Elephant Poo – Dee White. Illustrated by Christopher Nielsen.

    Harper Collins Australia December 2024 To finish off this year’s Picture Book month – ta dah!!! I’ve been waiting and waiting to share this one and I was really hoping that the notes I wrote for it would be already up in their published format [fingers crossed they might be before this goes live] Because…

  • Picture Book Month Extra! – Usborne Big Book of Facts

    Harper Collins Australia November 2024 Once upon a time we would likely say this is the sort of book that boys will love to pore over for hours, and while that still holds true, it’s fair to say that in my observations over the past ten years, it is just as likely to be girls…

  • Picture Book Month extra!! Cobweb – Michael Morpurgo

    Harper Collins Australia RRP: $19.99 Once again Michael Morpurgo demonstrates exactly why he is a master of middle grade historical fiction, even at the venerable age of 80+. If you have read his memoir Such Stuff: a Storymaker’s Inspiration, you will already be aware that most, if not all, of Michael’s stories are sparked initially…

  • If I Have to be Haunted – Miranda Sun

    Harper Collins Australia October 2021 Can’t let the little ones have all the fun for Halloween! This is a debut YA novel for which I recently wrote teaching notes**** and it was a really good mash-up of family, ghosts/horror, quest and rom-com. Cara is a serious student, trying her best to excel – in classes,…

  • The One and Only Family – Katherine Applegate

    Harper Collins Australia All good things must come to an end so they say [and of course, as a Buddhist, I do know that everything is impermanent], but I am, along with many others I have no doubt, sad to say goodbye to Ivan and his friends, and now family. It has given me such…

  • All the Beautiful Things – Katrina Nannestad

    Harper Collins October 2024 RRP: $22.99 It goes without saying that Katrina Nannestad’s books are going to fly off the shelves. She just produces one amazing narrative after another. When I was asked to write notes for this new one, I was naturally delighted. I found the book not only completely engrossing but quite emotional…

  • Howzat Pat series #1 and #2 – Pat Cummins & Dave Hartley. Illustrated by Serena Geddes

    Harper Collins Australia October 2024 I admit that I’m not quite the cricket fan I once was [though, of course, I went to see the Bradman Collection when we were in Adelaide a fortnight ago!] but it was still pretty exciting, and also a lot of fun to write teaching notes for these two titles,…

  • Jy Goes for Gold (Kimberley Kickers, #1) – Carl Merrison/Hakea Hustler. Illustrated by Samantha Campbell

    Harper Collins Australia September 2024 It was a strange bit of serendipity when two days after posting my Q&A with Carl Merrison, in which he mentioned this new series, I was asked to write teaching notes for this first one [despite the fact that “you are a NRL girl” haha!]. It’s not like I know…

  • Father’s Day 2024

    Happy Father’s day to all the dads, grandpas, uncles, significant/lighthouse males as well as the mums pulling double-duty as both parents. What Do You Call Your Dad? – Ashleigh Barton/Martina Heiduczek Harper Collins Australia July 2024 I’ve now reviewed several of Ashleigh’s books and also had, quite recently, the pleasure of meeting her at the…

  • 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…