Just So Stories

Random Reviews and Ramblings from Redcliffe

  • R.I.P. Nanny Tobbins – Lucie Stevens

    Harper Collins Australia June 2025 ISBN: 9781460766521 ISBN 10: 1460766520 $16.99 It’s one thing having a strict but kind and fair Nanny who is alive – and quite another when that Nanny is dead. Nine-year-old Albertine is a sweet child, who is without a mother but with a very loving and protective father. He is, in fact,…

  • The Girl and the Ghost – Jacqueline Harvey

    Penguin Australia April 2025 ISBN: 9781761349409 Imprint: Penguin RRP: $16.99 OMG!!! JH fans, both young and old, are about to lose their minds!!! This fabulous new book, which I gobbled up in two sittings, heralds the start of another new series from the best-selling author, who really knows how to reach her audience. In this instance, the audience…

  • 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…

  • Picture Book Month Extra! : Tigg and the Bandicoot Bushranger – Jackie French

    Harper Collins Australia December 2024 ISBN: 9781460763506 ISBN 10: 1460763505 Imprint: HarperCollins AU $17.99 Regular readers here know what a fan I am of Jackie’s work, particularly her historical fiction. She so deftly weaves fact and fiction creating a portal back in time for young readers to become bystanders and witnesses to some of the most significant events,…

  • Hester Hitchins and the Falling Stars – Catherine Norton

    Harper Collins Australia July 2024 ISBN: 9781460763179 ISBN 10: 1460763173 Imprint: HarperCollins AU RRP: $22.99 Don’t think it’s taken me all this time to read this one because it didn’t at all. After The Fortune Maker this was high up in the reading order. It’s just a sad fact that it’s taken me this long to get to…

  • Marion and the Forty Thieves – Sarah Luke

    NLA July 2024 ISBN : 9781922507679 Publisher : National Library of Australia Imprint : National Library of Australia RRP: $19.99 I grew up in Sydney and I was a kid with a thirst for history, particularly of my home town. I loved my excursions to the Rocks and being taken into the city on outings with my father, also a history…

  • Jack’s Island – Norman Jorgensen

    Fremantle Press January 2024 ISBN: 9781760992958 RRP: $17.99 Since its initial publication in 2008, Norman Jorgensen’s award-winning historical novel has proven not only an enduring popular choice for many class novel studies, but as a first-rate adventure constantly in circulation among readers from around Year 5 to Year 8. Based on stories from his own father,…

  • Hitler’s Daughter 25th Anniversary – Jackie French

    Harper Collins Australia July 2024 ISBN: 9781460764008 ISBN 10: 1460764005 Imprint: HarperCollins AU RRP: $17.99 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…

  • The Miraculous Sweetmakers #1: The Frost Fair- Natasha Hastings. Illustrated by Alex T. Smith

    Harper Collins Australia April 2024 ISBN: 9780008496067 ISBN 10: 0008496064 Imprint: HarperCollinsChildren’sBooks RRP: $16.99 I had read about the Frost Fairs in London some time ago, after a mention of these in another book and they really must have been quite a spectacle. An authentic Frost Fair will never happen again – read here to find out why…