Just So Stories

Random Reviews and Ramblings from Redcliffe

  • Little Cloud: Little Wonders #1 – Heidi McKinnon

    Hardie Grant November 2025 ISBN:9781761215810 Format:Board book Price:AU$19.99, NZ$22.99 Series:Little Wonders Publisher :Hardie Grant Children’s Publishing Imprint: Little Hare Here comes a sweet new series from the very clever and creative Heidi McKinnon pitched squarely at your smallest of Smalls. Larger sized and very sturdy board books with gorgeously textured bindings [always such a treat…

  • We Are All Amazing – P. Crumble and Jonathan Bentley.

    Scholastic Australia December 2025 ISBN: 9781761725333 RRP: $19.99 This is, I believe, the newest in a series pitched at younger children to encourage them to develop some positive attributes and attitudes. Anything with Jonathan Bentley‘s name attached is a drawcard for me. Not only is his artwork sublime but he’s a thoroughly nice human…amusing and…

  • Oh Dear, Look What I Got! – Michael Rosen. Helen Oxenbury.

    Walker Books Australia September 2025 ISBN13:9781529510898 Australia RRP:$24.99 New Zealand RRP:$27.99 When you open a parcel and find another parcel that is even more exciting because, just look at those names on the wrapping, you know you’re in for a treat! And so it is. This new instant classic [yep, I’m calling it already] will…

  • The Midnight Chew -Sally Morgan. Karen Blair.

    Fremantle Press October 2025 ISBN 9781760995096 RRP: AU $24.99/ NZ$30/ US $17.95 A happy-go-lucky sort of doggo book from Sally Morgan with definite echoes of Hairy Maclary and his gang, as Skippy Gillespie slips out of his yard in the dead of night to go rummage in the rubbish for his bone. Boofa Boy Jones…

  • One Keen Koala ABC – Margaret Wild. Bruce Whatley.

    Scholastic Australia December 2025 ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1761642391 ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1761642395 RRP: $19.99 Any book with this pairing of creators is so unlikely to need my recommendation because, let’s face it their names alone will guarantee it flying off shelves across the country. But, regardless, let me go on with this feeble attempt to…

  • Another Year Around the Sun – Katrina Germein. Alice Lindstrom

    Affirm Kids (September 30, 2025) Simon & Schuster Australia Length: 24 pages ISBN13: 9781923022911 RRP:  AU$ 22.99 / NZ$ 27.99 Meeting Katrina in person on our trip to Adelaide was such a delight for me, especially as I had reviewed some of her books, known more and written resources for One Little Duck. Now it’s…

  • The Cave Downwind of the Café – Mikey Please

    Harper Collins Australia October 2025 ISBN: 9780008639051 ISBN 10: 0008639051 Imprint: HarperCollins GB RRP: $24.99 I didn’t see the previous book, The Café at the Edge of the Woods, but as it won Waterstones’ Picture Book of the Year it would be obvious that it was a great success. Certainly, this quirky sequel confirms that. Actually, this is…

  • You Can’t Pat a Fish – Ruth Paul

    Walker Books Australia March 2025 ISBN13:9781760656973 Australia RRP:$25.99 New Zealand RRP:$27.99 Okay so it’s not a saltwater fish – but remember Don’t Trust Fish! – they can be either salt or fresh water. This one is a fun rhyming book that will add greatly to your collection of ‘pet’ books. If it’s wet, it isn’t…

  • Piranhas Don’t Eat Bananas: 10th Anniversary – Aaron Blabey

    Scholastic Australia September 2025 ISBN: 9781761528903 RRP: $19.99 This has long been one of my favourite read-alouds and, certainly, my favourite Aaron Blabey book. I have such great memories of sharing it the year it came out with The Kid, in that first year she was living with me [and we so often needed to…

  • 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…