Just So Stories

Random Reviews and Ramblings from Redcliffe

  • Bluey Christmas Little Library

    Penguin Australia September 2025 ISBN: 9781761620164 Imprint: Puffin Format: Board Book RRP: $12.99 Christmas Eve. Christmas Day. Christmas Food. Hooray Presents!! I do love these little libraries because I think for little hands which love to hold and turn the pages these are perfect. They are all really super cute! I love the idea of Verandah Santa and it’s…

  • Bluey: Big Pop-up Book

    Penguin Australia October 2025 ISBN: 9781761353352 Imprint: Puffin Format: Board Book RRP: $34.99 This one is another big and bold and very simple one. There are five pop-ups each telling its own little story. From fairies in the garden to playtime at the creek. Each pop-up scene is a double spread, as you can see with a couple of…

  • The Rose Field: The Book of Dust #3 – Philip Pullman

    Penguin Australia October 2025 ISBN: 9780241458709 Imprint: Penguin and David Fickling Books RRP: $34.99 It was a very long wait indeed and so many of us were very impatient indeed [no, it wasn’t just me!] – 2017 from the first to 2025 for the last. Not only did I revisit my reviews of #1 and #2 but I…

  • Bluey: Bartlebee’s First Christmas

    Penguin Australia 4October 2025 ISBN: 9781761353376 Imprint: Puffin RRP: $19.99 So in the tiny board book Hooray Presents! we saw Bluey get a mini Heeler toy. Meet Bartlebee! Bluey is enchanted with this new friend and hurls him straight into all the family Christmas shenanigans including Classic Catches in the pool and being licked ‘hello’ by Socks. Bartlebee…

  • Bluey – The Most Amazing Advent Book Bundle

    Penguin Australia September 2025 ISBN: 9781761620157 Imprint: Puffin RRP: $39.99 When they say it’s AMAZING, that’s exactly what they mean! Any Bluey fan is going to LOVE this advent calendar with a new little book to reveal each day. And how good will it be to add to the magic of Christmas approaching? From the publisher >>>> Stories…

  • All About Antarctica: a Fact Book about the Southernmost Continent – Marc Martin

    Penguin Australia October 2025 ISBN: 9781761047411 Imprint: Penguin RRP: $24.99 Slide through to see inside – you need to see how jam-packed this one is! I feel like it’s been a long time since I’ve seen some of Marc Martin’s work. This thought occurred to me just last week as I shifted more old reviews to the new…

  • B is for Busy: Mum’s Busy Work – Jacinda Ardern. Illustrated by Ruby Jones.

    Penguin Australia September 2025 RRP: $24.99 ISBN: 9781776957415 Imprint: Picture Puffin While not every woman becomes a Prime Minister with a child, every working woman with a child can relate to the constant juggling of home, family and the demands of the job. And many children will also relate to being the offspring of a busy working…

  • Bluey: The Sign

    Penguin Australia ISBN: 9781761352812 Imprint: Puffin RRP: $19.99 Close enough to include it in my picture books, this is the stand-out episode that many kids will have seen, and now they can read it as well. In the cutest graphic novel format, find out what happens when the For Sale goes up in the front yard of the…

  • Horror in Pleasantville: Stories from the Archives – Caleb Finn

    Penguin Australia August 2025 ISBN: 9781761345890 Imprint: Penguin RRP: $17.99 I’m guessing there would be some who have NOT heard of Caleb Finn – but that’s very likely not any of your readers or indeed anyone under the age of 25 at least. From his early days on TikTok his popularity has soared as an iconic purveyor of…

  • A Box Full of Murders – Janice Hallett

    Penguin Australia June 2025 ISBN: 9780241636183 Imprint: Puffin RRP: $16.99 It was actually quite serendipitous that as friend, Zanni Louise, mentioned she was enjoying a Janice Hallett murder-mystery – an author whose work I didn’t know – I replied by saying, I had just got a review copy of her first kids’ book, also a murder mystery. And…