Just So Stories

Random Reviews and Ramblings from Redcliffe

  • Kevin in a Stew – Jacqueline Harvey. Illustrated by Kate Isobel Scott.

    Penguin Australia ISBN: 9781761048975 Imprint: Puffin RRP: $19.99 All good things come to those who wait: like the box of books from Penguin that mysteriously arrived by camel train (seemingly) eventually ,or a slow-cooker lamb curry – NO!! sorry, that just slipped out by mistake. Do I look like the kind of person who would eat a poor…

  • Childish – Morris Gleitzman

    Penguin Australia September 2025 ISBN: 9781761343759 Imprint: Penguin RR: $16.99 Last year I talked up Tweet to anybody who would stand still long enough to listen. I still maintain it was one of my Top 5 MG novels for the year, and, certainly, one of Morris’ very best. Then – lo and behold! – along comes Childish…

  • The Locked Room – Adam Cece

    Penguin Australia August 2025 ISBN: 9781761351068 Imprint: Penguin RRP: $19.99 Wowzers! Hold on to your hats, and make sure to get yourself sorted with snacks and drinks for this one because you are not going to want to stop reading it once you’ve started. Let’s say you take a really tricky escape room, mix it up with an…

  • The Silken Thread – Gabrielle Wang

    Penguin Australia July 2025 ISBN: 9781761350740 Imprint: Penguin RRPP: $17.99 This beautiful new novel from former Laureaute and multi-award winner, Gabrielle Wang, is an absolutely outstanding, and almost mystical, exploration of East meets West. It is not a time-slip but rather a shift in the universe, from Chongming Island in China to Melbourne, Australia, with two very…

  • Cock-a-doodle-doo! – Pamela Allen

    Penguin Australia August 2025 ISBN: 9781761354908 Imprint: Puffin RRP: $24.99 Or as Penguin have titled it on their website: Cock-a-Doodle-Doooo! What a living treasure is Pamela Allen! Now in her 91st year and still giving children such enormous pleasure. This is another of Pamela’s deceptively simple but so cleverly done narratives that will have your Smalls in…

  • Board books for Smalls

    Little Miss Daisy is just about too big now for board books, but I’m so happy to be able to share these ones with her before that cut-off! Wibble, Wobble, Walk! – Mike Dumbleton & Sarah Boese Little Book Press Distributed by Simon & Schuster June 2025 ISBN: 9781923141285 RRP: $AU$ 14.99 / NZ$ 29.99…

  • A Different Kind of Power: a memoir – Jacinda Ardern

    Penguin Australia June 2025 ISBN: 9781776951277 Imprint: Penguin RRP: $55.00 First up, I’m going to say a big thank you to Penguin, especially the indefatigable Dot Tonkin, for giving me the opportunity to read and review this. As someone who admired this young woman as a trailblazer, it has been interesting to see her in close-up, so to…

  • Eleanor Jones is Playing with Fire – Amy Doak

    Penguin Australia July 2025 ISBN: 9781761350634 Imprint: Penguin RRP: $19.99 Anyone who has read the first two Eleanor Jones books will know exactly how pleased I was when this one arrived. You would also know exactly why the first two titles have been so highly acclaimed. Amy Doak has a great grip on the whole YA crime/mystery genre…

  • In Plain Sight: Friday Barnes #13 – R. A. Spratt

    Penguin Australia June 2025 ISBN: 9781761349713 Imprint: Puffin RRP: $16.99 It was quite synchronistic to get #13 Friday Barnes arriving on Friday 13th, I thought! And, needless to say, I promptly gobbled it up over two nights with much snickering and snort laughing [No R. A. Spratt is ever read without the snaughling!]. The Friday romp continues with…

  • Alexander’s Outing – Pamela Allen

    Penguin Australia ISBN: 9781761355134 Imprint: Puffin Format: Board Book RRP: $14.99 Who hasn’t shared the love with Alexander at some point, (or many even!) over the past 30 – THIRTY!! – years? And for those of us who are Sydney girls, it has always had a special place in our reading canon. My last outing with Alexander was about…