Just So Stories

Random Reviews and Ramblings from Redcliffe

  • Mr Chicken Arriva a Roma – Leigh Hobbs

    ISBN: 9781925266771 Publisher: Allen & Unwin Imprint: A & U Children  September 2016 $24.99   Ben venuto caro Signore Pollo! Mi sei mancato! Everyone’s favourite fowl, renowned for his international travel, is back to give us true insight into another marvellous metropolis. Mr Chicken has graced both Paris and London and shown us all their…

  • Friday Barnes #5 The Plot Thickens – R. A. Spratt

    9780857989932 August 1, 2016 Random House Australia Children’s   RRP $15.99 I have some readers who have been driving us mad in the library waiting and waiting on a new Friday Barnes fix – and here it is! Friday’s at her best solving mysteries, uncovering truth, being a complete dork and antagonising people in this…

  • The Adventures of Alfie Onion – Vivian French: illustrated by Matra Kissi

          Walker Books   Imprint: WALKER PAPERBACK   ISBN: 9781406363104 Published: 05 May 2016 Price: $14.99   Fractured fairytales are a popular writing task in many schools. In the past week the secondary girls in my ‘home’ school are writing them and in one of the local primaries in which I did a supply…

  • Amped! Carving it up with DC Green – a blog Q&A that’s choka!

    Ohmigosh! Q&A with the wonderful DC Green – grommet, writer, entertainer, cat-herder, friend, guy with panache…………..and all round Good Guy. Tell us about the young DC – what were you like as a kid, what did you like doing, where you grew up, how naughty you were? Young DC would be devastated to learn that…

  • So Wrong – Michael Wagner and Wayne Bryant

      Billy Goat Books August 2016 ISBN 9780994251756 RRP $14.99   Having a problem reaching those reluctant readers? Well I guess we all have at times. So how to solve the problem is the question. Put a fiendishly naughty author and illustrator together and watch them create what can only be described as outrageously subversive…

  • Marge in Charge Isla Fisher, illustrated by Eglantine Ceulemans

      Allen & Unwin Australia ISBN 9781848125339 Publisher:Bonnier Imprint:Piccadilly Books Pub Date:August 2016 RRP $14.99 Comedian, actress, mother and now author, Isla Fisher takes domestic anarchy to a new level with these stories about a baby sitter who is definitely not average. Jemima and Jake do not want a new babysitter. They especially don’t want…

  • (Axel Scheffler’s) Flip Flap Pets – Axel Scheffler

    July 2016 Allen & Unwin Imprint: Nosy Crow ISBN 9780857636805 RRP $ 15.99 Flip flap books have always been popular with kids as they make all kinds of crazy combinations. I knew this one was going to be a sure fire winner at our house for sure because we are the household with the menagerie.…

  • A Hungry Lion or a Dwindling Assortment of Animals – Lucy Ruth Cummins

    Simon & Schuster Atheneum Books for Young Readers | 40 pages | ISBN 9781471147074 May 2016   There once was a hungry lion, a penguin (Well he was just here…), a little calico kitten (I could have sworn I just saw him…), a brown mouse (Now wait a second…), a bunny with floppy ears and…

  • Princess Betony and the Hobgoblin – Pamela Freeman/illustrated by Tamsin Ainslie

    ISBN: 9781921720260 Imprint: WALKER BOOKS AUST July 2016 RRP $12.99 This is a series new to me (thank you so much to Walker Books for adding me to your reviewer list!!) and I think it is just delightful judging by this one. Princess Betony is not exactly your average princess. She doesn’t much like wearing fussy dresses…

  • Jacky Ha-Ha – James Patterson, with Chris Grabenstein

    Random House Australia ISBN: 9781784754075 Published: 16/05/2016 Imprint: Arrow (Young)   RRP $15.99   The Middle School series from the James Patterson stable has been terrifically popular and as JP’s new character is introduced I foresee another avalanche of young readers. Since Jacky Hart first started school and had unkind kids make fun of her stuttering start (hence…