Just So Stories

Random Reviews and Ramblings from Redcliffe


  • This is a Ball 10th Anniversary Edition #1 Books that Drive Kids Crazy – Beck & Matt Stanton

    Harper Collins Australia April 2025 ISBN: 9780733343780 ISBN 10: 0733343783 Imprint: ABC Books AU RRP: $26.99 Doesn’t really seem possible that it’s 10 years since the extraordinary humour of the Stantons burst onto the scene, sending hordes of kids into absolute fits of laughter. Yet, here we are, the laughs kept on coming too, which was a great…

  • Ming and Maria Explore the Universe: The Girls Who Changed the World #5 – Jackie French

    Harper Collins Australia ISBN: 9781460764886 ISBN 10: 1460764889 Imprint: HarperCollins AU RRP: $16.99 Once again, I was delighted to be asked to write the notes for this last title in what has been an inspiring series for our young people. It was particularly special as Jackie and I had had some conversations about this particular ‘mighty girl’ of…

  • Mim and the Mother Muddle: The Travelling Bookshop # 6 – Katrina Nannestad

    Harper Collins Australia March 2025 ISBN: 9780733343124 ISBN 10: 0733343120 Imprint: ABC Books AU RRP: $16.99 Young fans of this delightful series will be excited for this new one, in which we finally get to meet Mim’s mother. The travelling bookshop has arrived in Salzburg, which was not their intended destination, but as usual Flossy, the Clydesdale, knows…

  • The Marvellous Submarine -Zane Clayton Comber (The Marvellous Submarine, #1) Clayton Zane Comber. Connor McCammon

    Harper Collins Australia April 2025 ISBN: 9781460766804 ISBN 10: 1460766806 Imprint: HarperCollins AU List Price: 17.99 AUD This hails the start of a new series, co-written and illustrated by this pair from Kiama [one of my favourite places in the country] which will completely hook your young readers, particularly those who have been languishing for more Treehouse-like books. It…

  • Manslaughter Park -Tirzah Price

    Harper Collins Australia January 2025 ISBN: 9780062889874 ISBN 10: 0062889877 Imprint: HarperCollins US List Price: 24.99 AUD I very much enjoyed #2 in this series which I reviewed last year and did also like this one very much. Not quite as much, but that was merely a personal preference. It is just as well-written and engaging but I think…

  • Sink or Swim: Frog Squad #3 – Kate and Jol Temple. Shiloh Gordon.

    Harper Collins April 2025 ISBN: 9781460716427 ISBN 10: 1460716426 Imprint: HarperCollins RRP: $8.99 Everybody’s favourite famous frogs are back – leaping into action with all the finesse of the fit and feisty ‘phibians that they are. This small, but dedicated, army of frogs – drawn from all over the world [and by Shiloh Gordon] are hopping with excitement…

  • All the Ways Your Mum will Be There for You – Sarah Ayoub. Kate Moon.

    Harper Collins ISBN: 9781460765630 ISBN 10: 146076563X Imprint: HarperCollins AU RRP: $24.99 Well, isn’t this just like picking up a delicious iced donut! Look at those gorgeous colours on the cover art – and shininess as well! And that’s exactly the right sweet vibe for this cute rhyming book that explores all the things mothers do for their…

  • Neeka and the Missing Key: Wilder Zoo #1 – Tina Strachan

    Harper Collins ISBN: 9781460716434 ISBN 10: 1460716434 Imprint: HarperCollins/Angus & Robertson RRP $12.99 Last night (13/03) I had another wonderful evening at Quick Brown Fox bookshop for a Reading Between the Wines event. Tina Strachan was one of the authors, and it was fortuitous that I had just read this first in her series. We all know that…

  • A Good Kind of Trouble – Brooke Blurton and Melanie Saward

    Harper Collins Australia January 2024 ISBN: 9781460761496 ISBN 10: 1460761499 Imprint: HarperCollins AU RRP: $19.99 This is another great novel coming from WA with fresh new voices and perspectives, and one of my most enjoyable reads of last year [I was reading the proof to write the teaching notes]. Jamie is a lively and intelligent girl who is…

  • The Chronicles of Wetherwhy: the Age of Enchantment – Anna James

    Harper Collins September 2024 ISBN: 9780008611552 ISBN 10: 0008611556 Imprint: HarperCollinsChildren’sBooks List Price: 12.99 AUD After the roaring success of her Pages & Co series, Anna James has kicked off an engaging new series with which I am already wholly engaged, as I’m sure will be your readers. Everyone in Whetherwhy has magic, to a greater or lesser extent.…