Just So Stories

Random Reviews and Ramblings from Redcliffe

  • Indigenous Literacy Day

    It gives me such enormous pleasure to be able to showcase four new books from ILF to celebrate Indigenous Literacy Day – and if you’ve missed it on your calendar, don’t despair! Just schedule your own event when you can – I know only too well how hard it can be fitting everything into our…

  • Powerful like a Dragon – Christopher Cheng. Illustrated by Jacqueline Tam

    Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group April 2025 ISBN: 978-1-250-82939-9 | Price: $18.99 US / $24.99 CAN Pan Macmillan Australia ISBN: 9781250829399 Format: Hardback Pub Date: 29/07/2025 Firstly, I want to thank Christopher for asking me if I would like to review this amazing book, about which he and I first had some conversation around this time last year. Secondly,…

  • Three Boys Gone – Mark Smith

    Pan Macmillan Australia Imprint: Macmillan Australia December 2025 ISBN: 9781761269868 RRP: $34.99 When I taught my rowdy Year 9s a few years ago, and even the most disengaged became completely engrossed in The Road to Winter (and many of them going on to read the rest of the trilogy!), it was pretty obvious Mark Smith has…

  • The Skin I’m In – Steph Tisdell

    Pan Macmillan July 2024 ISBN: 9781760984977 RRP: $26.99 It took me a while to get to this one on the review shelf, but when I did, it didn’t take me long to read it – I chomped it up over 3 nights and loved every vibrant word of it. Then of course it was Picture Book…

  • 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…

  • Check out my review of this new series – Our Stories – at Kids Book Review – a perfect way to get your youngest readers thinking about diversity – some quality creators behind this!