Just So Stories

Random Reviews and Ramblings from Redcliffe

  • 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,…

  • One by One They Disappear – Mike Lucas

    Penguin Australia May 2024 Honestly, before you put this on your shelves for your kiddos, you need to read it first. Because once they get their hands on it and the word spreads, you will never get a look in! I was hooked from the very start and this is a whole package; supernatural, folktales,…

  • Her Majesty’s League of Remarkable Young Ladies – Alison D. Stegert

    Chicken House May 2024 ISBN: 9781915026095 ISBN-10: 1915026091 Published: 1st May 2024 RRP: $19.99 It’s always such a pleasure to review a friend’s book. It is even more so when that friend is a near-neighbour, Sunshine Coast writer Alison D. Stegert. I have been waiting for quite a long time to get my hands on this one, especially…

  • The Sea Captain’s Wife – Jackie French

    Harper Collins Australia It really is a given, that a new Jackie French book means that all other books are put on hold (even if half-read!) until I have devoured the newest. And that’s exactly what has happened over the past few days. Just under 500 pages flew by over a couple of nights as…

  • Ivy Newt series

    New South Books Ivy Newt and the Storm WitchDerek Keilty, illustrated by Magda Broll Apr 2023 | Scallywag Press | 9781915252180 | AUD$18.99, NZD$21.99 Ivy Newt and the Time ThiefDerek Keilty, illustrated by Magda Broll Sep 2023 | Scallywag Press | 9781915252333 | AUD$18.99, NZD$21.99 Yes, quite right – both of these were released last…

  • The Daredevil Princess and the Golden Unicorn: #1 – Belinda Murrell. Illustrated by Rebecca Crane.

    Penguin Random House February 2024 Make way, make way, for Her Royal Highness, Crown Princess Mathilda Amalia Charlotte Adelaide Rose! Or, as readers will come to know her, Princess Tillie, newest character from one of our favourite authors, Belinda Murrell. The first in a brand new series especially pitched at freshly independent readers, this has…

  • 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…

  • The Newshound[The Dog Squad #1]-Clara Vulliamy

    Harper Collins Australia August 2023 ISBN 9780008565336 RRP: $15.99 This is just pure fun, feel-good all the way, and made for an enjoyable read. Your confident independent readers who are already loving Dotty Detective and Marshmallow Pie, will go just as nuts for this new series – particularly, of course, if they are dog-lovers! Central…

  • Monster Island – George Ivanoff

    Penguin Australia Soooooooo, take a little Jurassic Park, a pinch of Big Foot, a handful of Little Shop of Horrors, a smidgin of mad scientists, a scoop of Bass Strait Triangle [like the Bermuda one, but closer] and an actual drop bear, and stir vigorously with some George Ivanoff – and voila! the perfect, albeit…

  • Miss Penny Dreadful & the Malicious Maze – Allison Rushby

    Walker Books Australia ISBN13:9781760654047 Australia RRP:$15.99 New Zealand RRP:$17.99 I love a great mystery, and I especially like that some of our authors will pitch this popular genre to our younger readers. This is the second Penny Dreadful from Allison Rushby and I can already see a growing fanbase for this series. We know Penny…