Just So Stories

Random Reviews and Ramblings from Redcliffe

  • Kevin Saves the Show – Jacqueline Harvey. Illustrated by Kate Isobel Scott.

    Penguin Australia August 2024 Just in time to kick off the animals PB extravaganza, everyone’s newest favourite sheep is back and as one would expect is front and centre in the spotlight. Our jumbuck is the host of a karaoke singing competition, rocking his new purple ‘do’ and looking sharp as a wolf’s tooth. The…

  • Allen the Alien – Stephanie Ward & Aleck Morton

    Yellow Brick Books/Riveted Press June 2024 ISBN13: 9780648492511 Distributed by Simon & Schuster RRP: $24.99 If you love J.Lo (Oh), from the movie Home (and the books The True Meaning of Smekday/Smek for President) as much as I do, you are certainly going to love Allen. And your kiddos will also love this quirky character…

  • Queen of Dogs – Joe Weatherstone

    Walker Books June 2024 ISBN13:9781760658588 Australia RRP:$16.99 New Zealand RRP:$18.99 What a super fun read this was!! It’s a real mixed bag – humour, drama, mystery, family and … doggos galore! Maddy often feels like the changeling in her family of high-flyers. They are all very sporty and academic and always on the go-go-GO! Maddy,…

  • Adventures Unlimited #1: The Land of Lost Things – Andy Griffiths. Illustrated by Bill Hope

    Pan Macmillan Australia August 2024 Imprint: Pan Australia ISBN: 9781761268267 RRP: $16.99 By coincidence the Ipswich StoryFest starts today [4/8] and it was at that kids lit festival, very early on in my teacher-librarian career (possibly around 1998?) that I first met Andy Griffiths and enjoyed the uproarious hilarity of his presentation [the exploding check out…

  • BrilliANT : A Journey into the Impressive Life of an Ant- Rosi Ngwenya and Sandy Flett

    For a word nerd such as I, or your participANTs, whether in the classroom or library – including any miscreANTs that some of you will have in your group of readers, this is just fANTastic! Who would ever have ANTicipated a book that would reveal the entire life journey of an ant and its colony…

  • Spiro – Anna McGregor

    Scribble July 2024 ISBN: 9781761381010 RRP: $24.99 Here’s the next delightful book in this week’s mini-beast theme, and what a terrific comedy of errors it is. Spiro is the epitome of perseverance, effort and resilience (which, obviously, will be a great talking point for your Smalls), as he works hard on one web after another…

  • Dung Beetle on a Roll – Sandra Severgnini

    August 2024 | $ 24.99ISBN: 9781486318872 Publisher: CSIRO Publishing You only need to take one look at this adorable vid clip to know that both you and your kids will fall in love with Dung Beetle. Sometimes I’m a bit spoilt and was about a month ago, meeting Sandra for the first time. I was…

  • Mr McGee and his Hat – Pamela Allen

    Pamela Allen on Mr McGee and turning 90: ‘I’ve always known what I’m doing is good’ Penguin Australia RRP: $24.99 In just the last week I was remembering the furore over Mr McGee’s little penis that was barely visible in Mr McGee and the Biting Flea, and chatting about it to someone. The book was…

  • Clarice Bean Smile – Lauren Child

    Harper Collins Australia April 2024 Yesterday was a very grumpy day. Although there was lots of good stuff in it, I was extremely annoyed to find out that someone has literally passed my own words off as their own, and, not for the first time, used my work to put focus on their own, without…

  • Mim and the Vicious Vendetta:#5 The Travelling Bookshop- Katrina Nannestad. Illustrated by Cheryl Orsini.

    Harper Collins Australia March 2024 To be honest, Katrina’s books sell themselves, they really don’t need any help from me. In particular, her series like this one which have engaged readers from the outset. Take a horse-drawn ‘bookshop’, a somewhat eccentric bookseller father, an excitable [and possibly neuro-divergent] little brother (of course, that might just…