Just So Stories

Random Reviews and Ramblings from Redcliffe

  • Dylan Alcott: Game On! – Dylan Alcott/Fiona Regan. Illustrated by Nahum Ziersch.

    Harper Collins November 2024 ISBN: 9780733343209 ISBN 10: 0733343201 RRP: $16.99 What an absolute honour it was for me to be asked to write the teaching notes for this book – the first in a series – from sporting legend, disability advocate, radio host, actor, founder of his self-named foundation, film-maker, motivational speaker, Australian of the Year…

  • Plantabulous!

    New South Books From Albatros Books/Media are two absolutely delightful new titles. Both about plants, both non-fiction, both exquisitely designed but providing lower-middle primary kiddos with information about plants from two different angles. How Plants Talk – Helena Haraštová. Illustrated by Linh Dao 9788000068114 / 1 August 2023 AUD$24.99, NZD$29.99 Your Smalls will be fascinated to see…

  • The Frog Squad #2: Bungle in the Jungle – Kate and Jol Temple. Illustrated by Shiloh Gordon.

    Harper Collins Australia December 2024 ISBN: 9781460716410 ISBN 10: 1460716418 Imprint: HarperCollins List Price: 12.99 AUD The Temple two have such a fabulous skill in creating hugely humorous reads for kids, without degenerating into crassness. It is one of the reasons I love reviewing their books. And the Frog Squad is certainly proving to be a hilarious delight with…

  • Superstar: Ash Barty Tennis Camp Diaries #2 – Ash Barty/ Jasmin McGaughey and Jade Goodwin.

    Harper Collins Australia December 2024 ISBN: 9781460762752 ISBN 10: 1460762754 Imprint: HarperCollins AU List Price: 15.99 AUD Your newly independent readers, so proudly on their journey to extended narratives, will have, I hope, already discovered the fun of this series with #1 Doubles Disaster. Now the happy and positive vibe continues with Ash and her friends back at tennis…

  • How to Make a Snowman – Nick Bland

    Harper Collins Australia October 2024 ISBN: 9781460764077 ISBN 10: 1460764072 Imprint: HarperCollins AU RRP: $24.99 Yes, I know. It’s not a Christmas book and while we do get snow, it’s not generally at Christmas time – but! Snowmen have become such an icnonic symbol of Xmas all over that it seemed a good idea to add this one…

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

    Harper Collins Australia December 2024 ISBN: 9781460766194 ISBN 10: 1460766199 Imprint: HarperCollins AU RRP: $24.99 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…

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

    Harper Collins Australia November 2024 ISBN: 9781805071174 ISBN 10: 1805071173 Imprint: Usborne GB List Price: 29.99 AUD 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,…

  • Picture Book Month extra!! Cobweb – Michael Morpurgo

    Harper Collins Australia ISBN: 9780008352141 ISBN 10: 0008352143 Imprint: HarperCollins GB 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…

  • If I Have to be Haunted – Miranda Sun

    Harper Collins Australia October 2021 ISBN: 9780008612443 ISBN 10: 0008612447 Imprint: Magpie Books GB RRP: $24.99 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,…

  • The One and Only Family – Katherine Applegate

    Harper Collins Australia ISBN: 9780008702465 ISBN 10: 0008702462 Imprint: HarperCollins GB RRP: $17.99 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…