Just So Stories

Random Reviews and Ramblings from Redcliffe


  • You’ll Always Be My Baby – Jessica Urlichs. Illustrated by Jedda Robaard.

    Penguin Australia Since the new year, I’ve been busy on a regular basis planning The Kid’s 21st birthday celebration. Just like her mother, she didn’t want anything, but I persuaded her otherwise, so a smallish party at home for friends, followed by a dinner for family and friends-like-family at her favourite restaurant. As I go…

  • Lila MacKay is Very Misunderstood – Gill Sims

    Harper Collins Australia December 2025 If you have followed and shrieked with laughter over Gill Sims’ FB posts Peter and Jane over the years or read her books e.g. the Why Mummy Drinks series , you will know instantly that this book is utterly hilarious. It is pure Gill Sims, with less sweary bits. Written…

  • The Only Branch on the Family Tree – Sherryl Clark

    UQP April 2025 ISBN: 9780702268915 RRP: $14.99 With perfect timing, coinciding with this thread of my Mother’s Day reviews, Sherryl Clark’s beautiful new MG book arrived yesterday. At the same time, it has once again re-affirmed that I actually DO enjoy verse novels – certainly, those that have come my way in the past twelve…

  • Ruby and the Pen – David Lawrence. Illustrated by Cherie Dignam.

    EK Books August 2023 ISBN: 9781922539380 RRP: $16.99 I’m fairly sure that at one time or another, we’ve all wished we had a magic wand to just ‘swish and flick’ to remove any obstacles, problems or annoyances. Somehow, I’d never pictured it as a magic pen though! 12-year-old Ruby is an inveterate cartoon-sketching kid, who…