Just So Stories

Random Reviews and Ramblings from Redcliffe

  • Evie and Pog (series)– Tania McCartney

    Harper Collins Australia January 2020 I’ve said before that Tania McCartney is uber-talented (as well as being one of the very nicest humans I know) and I for one am tremendously excited about this new series pitched at newly independent readers. It’s just fabulous to see a few new series to add to these collections!…

  • Total Quack Up Again! – Edited by Sally Rippin and Adrian Beck. Illustrated by Jules Faber.

    Penguin Australia October 2019 ISBN: 9781760893583 Imprint: Puffin RRP: $14.99 Get quacking if you haven’t already and grab this second edition of hilarious stories from some of our most celebrated authors as well as one young newcomer! The first TQU was a great success not only providing children with some super funny stories but raising funds for Dymocks…

  • The Peski Kids: Near Extinction #4 – R. A. Spratt

    Penguin Australia January 2020 ISBN: 9780143796367 Imprint: Puffin Format: Paperback RRP: $16.99 Readers may rest assured that this latest episode in The Peski Kids once again passes the snort-laugh test with flying colours. There is something truly inspired about these completely kooky characters. This new instalment opens with the reluctant wedding of Dad and the intimidating Ingrid but is…

  • Attack of the Meteor Monsters [Maudlin Towers #3] – Chris Priestley

    Bloomsbury October 2019 ISBN: 9781408873120 Imprint: Bloomsbury Children’s Books RRP: $15.99   If you or your readers haven’t caught onto this series yet I would urge you to do so. While we all know it’s important to have narratives which deal with significant issues or concepts, it’s equally important to just have a chuckle in…

  • The Australia Survival Guide – George Ivanoff

      Penguin Australia October 2019 ISBN: 9780143796572 Imprint: Puffin RRP: $24.99 George Ivanoff is not just a pretty face. Under that luxuriant  mop of ever-changing hair there’s an inventive and clever brain which can produce not only awesome adventures of the fictional kind for readers but now the ultimate field guide to surviving in the harsh reality of…

  • Racing in the Rain – Garth Stein [Young Readers Adaptation]

    Harper Collins Australia August 2019 ISBN: 9780062935076 ISBN 10: 0062935070 Imprint: HarperCollins – US List Price: 14.99 AUD For everyone who has loved the series of A Dog’s Purpose (which definitely includes me and K) this book will bring much joy though at times it is both poignant and tense. It is the story of a family in essence.…

  • The Wizards of Once: Knock Three Times: #3 – Cressida Cowell

    Hachette SEP 24, 2019 | 9781444941470 | RRP $19.99 Not strange at all – looking up and seeing three children clutching a magical flying door high above a forest. Well ok, perhaps a magical door flying is a tiny bit odd but not in a Cressida Cowell fantasy/adventure! Xar, Wish and little Bodkin are escaping their Warrior and Wizard…

  • Toffle Towers #1: Fully Booked – Tim Harris/James Foley

    Penguin August 2019 ISBN: 9780143795421 Imprint: Puffin RRP: $14.99 Tim Harris, creator of the remarkable Mr Bambuckle, presents an equally daffy protagonist in this new series. Chegwin Toffle may be only ten years old but he is one very determined entrepreneur albeit prone to wild imaginings and daydreams. Chegwin is the sole beneficiary of his hitherto unknown great-uncle…

  • The Curse of the School Rabbit – Judith Kerr

    Harper Collins July 2019 ISBN: 9780008352608 ISBN 10: 0008352607 Imprint: HarperCollins Children’sBooks   The late Judith Kerr’s final book, like all her glorious work, is quintessentially English, gently humorous and full of everyday adventure and family life. When Snowball the school rabbit needs to be rabbit-sat for a time, Tommy’s little sister, Angie, is ecstatic. Tommy is less…

  • Stuck in the Mud: Peski Kids #3 – R. A. Spratt

      Penguin Random House August 2019 ISBN: 9780143796350 Imprint: Puffin RRP: $16.99 The Peski kids have certainly encountered some bizarre events since their arrival in the backwater town of Currawong but perhaps the annual town Mud Run is one of the most strange – to their minds at least. Added to this is the even more repugnant…