Just So Stories

Random Reviews and Ramblings from Redcliffe

  • The Mushroom in the Sky – Jackie French

    Harper Collins Australia July 2025 If there’s anything more exciting than new Jackie French historical fiction, it’s getting your hands on it before anyone else and writing teaching notes for it. In light of the 80th Anniversary of the Hiroshima bombing coming up (and ergo, the end of the War in the Pacific), Jackie French…

  • Marramarra: Indigenous Artists Making History Visible – a collaboration by Brook Garru Andrew and Jessica Neath.

    UNSW 9781742237039 / November 2024/ $49.99 marramarra (a Wiradjuri word meaning to create, make or do) explores how contemporary Indigenous artists and their communities are revealing hidden histories and finding pathways to healing. I don’t even pretend to be an artist though I do like ‘messing’ around with creative bits and pieces, so not only did this book…

  • Idiots, Follies & Misadventures – Mikey Robins

    Simon & Schuster Australia July 2023 As someone who has adored Horrible Histories – especially Stupid Deaths – and also Mikey Robins, since the days of Good News Week (I miss that show SO MUCH!), this was just comedy gold for me. Of course, I’m fascinated by history of all kinds, but it really is…

  • Bedtime Stories – R. A. Spratt

    Penguin Australia August 2023 It is a well-known fact in my circle, that R. A. Spratt habitually makes me snort-laugh. So I really had to prepare myself (and The Kid) for random outbursts of bizarre guffawing as I enjoyed my way through this gargantuan offering. There is something to please everyone here. Although, for me,…

  • The Big Book of Exhibits – Joan-Marie Hargreaves & Marita Bullock. Illustrated by Liz Rowland.

    Hachette Septemember 2022 Imprint: Lothian Children’s Books ISBN: 9780734419996 RRP: $24.99 We absolutely know that kiddos love information books and, certainly in my experience, the quirkier the better really. This marvellous book is described as a ‘cabinet of curiosities’ and indeed it does appear to be exactly that in a written and illustrated form. For…

  • Agatha Christie: a Very Elusive Woman – Lucy Worsley

    Hachette Australia September 2022 ISBN: 9781529303889 | RRP $34.99 If, as I am, you are are a fan of historian Lucy Worsley, either in her role as Chief Curator of Royal Historical Palaces and her numerous TV appearances, or in her other guise as a skilled writer of best-selling history books AND you are also an Agatha…

  • All of Us [a history of SouthEast Asia] – Jackie French and Virginia Hooker. Illustrated by Mark Wilson

    Harper Collins October 2019 ISBN: 9781460750025 ISBN 10: 1460750020 Imprint: HarperCollins – AU List Price: 29.99 AU Is it a history book? Poetry? A work of art? Geographical work? Actually it’s pretty much all of these wrapped up in one stunning picture book. The incomparable Jackie French teams up with Emeritus Professor Virginia Hooker, social historian, to take readers…