Just So Stories

Random Reviews and Ramblings from Redcliffe

  • My Dream Holiday – Ash Barty. Jasmin McGaughey. Jade Goodwin.

    Harper Collins Australia You may or may not have heard the current furore instigated by The Society of Authors UK over ‘celebrity-authored’ books and that’s hardly surprising. I have seen many books that I know very well have not been written by the person named as author, with there is nary a mention of the…

  • At the Movies

    With the holidays coming up there will be plenty planning movie outings, and also, I know I used to post something for my parents on the library webpage as well as in the newsletter. I had a prompt this week to do so again, but I’ll come to that. First up, last week (release day,…

  • Summer of Shipwrecks – Shivaun Plozza

    UQP September 2024 ISBN 9780702268373 RRP: $16.99 2024 was, as I’ve said many times, a year for splendid Australian middle-grade novels and this, the latest from Shivaun Plozza is a prime example. That transition between end of primary/start of secondary is a difficult time for many tweens. It’s often a time when long-held friendships unravel…

  • Three Dresses – Wanda Gibson

    UQP April 2024 ISBN: 9780702266355 RRP: $26.99 As soon as I saw this book, I wanted to review it as I knew it would be both beautiful and poignant. I’ve not been to Hopevale or Woorabinda, only as far as Cairns, but I know people who have both been and worked there. I have though,…

  • An Amazing Camping Trip – Jackie Hosking/Lesley Vamos

    Walker Books Australia ISBN13: 9781760654948 Australia RRP: $24.99 New Zealand RRP: $27.99 Jackie Hosking’s excellent rhyming is a byword in the kids lit community and this is another great example. While neither she, nor illustrator Lesley Vamos, are First Nations creators (in fact, Jackie is ‘Nigerian-born Cornish Australian’), I think this is a terrific book…

  • The First Summer of Callie McGee – A. L. Tait

    Scholastic August 2023 ISBN: 9781760260163ISBN-10: 1760260169  A L Tait makes an impressive departure from her usual historical/fantasywriting, with this thoroughly engaging contemporary middle-grade novel. Calliope-Jean Maree McGee is about to start high school. It’s not the selective high school that her mother wanted her to attend, and that’s just fine by this tween who is keen to…

  • Not a Book Review!

    We all know the last two years have, at times, been quite fraught and definitely frustrating. The Kid and I had a trip to Thailand that buckled in the first few months of Covid (still waiting on perhaps some refund from Thai Airways after them going belly-up) ……..our usual annual trip to NSW to visit…

  • Worst. Holiday. Ever. – Charlie Higson

    Penguin AustraliaISBN: 9780241414781 May 2021 ISBN: 9780241414781 Imprint: Puffin RRP: $14.99 See, I associate Charlie Higson’s name with Young Bond, thrilling spy adventures, evil villains – you know the sort of thing so this absolutely hilarious book took me completely by surprise. Stan is the only child of pretty ordinary parents and lives in a pretty ordinary suburban house…

  • The Getaway : Diary of a Wimpy Kid #12 – Jeff Kinney

    Penguin Australia 9780143782797 November 7, 2017 Puffin 224 pages RRP $14.99   Well as if there isn’t always enough going on for the Heffleys on a regular day-to-day basis their holiday plans go completely awry and full on pandemonium ensues!   The Heffley parentals have decided that they are going to completely avoid the stress…

  • When We Go Camping – Sally Sutton. Illustrated by Cat Chapman

    Walker Books ISBN  9781921977787 Imprint: Walker Books Australia October 1, 2016 Australian RRP: $24.99 New Zealand RRP: $27.99 This is another one that had slipped through the cracks and shouldn’t have! It’s a really fabulous read aloud that will have little ones bouncing in their seats and joining in the choruses.   With lots of rhyming and onomatopoeia…