Just So Stories

Random Reviews and Ramblings from Redcliffe

  • All Aboard! Discovering Sydney’s Central Station – Jackie French. Martina Heiduczek.

    New Frontier Publishing August 2025 ISBN : 978-1-923145-38-2 PRICE : $26.99 As a Sydney kid growing up in the late 50s and 60s Central Station, as was, felt very familiar to me. Not that we regularly went to the city every week or even every month, but we did quite often for special occasions. And certainly we…

  • The Little Engine that Could – Watty Piper

    Scholastic Australia December 2024 ISBN: 9781761642449 ISBN-10: 1761642448 RRP: $19.99 As I read this [I’ve lost count of how many times I have done so over the years] ready to write this review, it is Xmas Eve. And, as happens, all my loved ones who are missing are strongly in my mind. My dear Mum, who would…

  • The Golden Swift – Lev Grossman

    Bloomsbury July 2022 ISBN 9781526647634 Imprint Bloomsbury Children’s Books RRP: $14.99 A couple of years back I enthusiastically endorsed The Silver Arrow and I am very pleased to say that this second instalment is equally as enchanting for your middle school readers. A year after they first encounter The Silver Arrow and begin their mission…

  • The Silver Arrow – Lev Grossman

    Bloomsbury September 2020 ISBN 9781526629418 RRP: AU $14.99 NZ $16.99 In my opinion it’s a rare middle-age novel that can transcend reading interests, age groups and genders but this is most definitely one that can. Certainly your middle grade readers will love it but it is just as appealing for older readers, including adults, as…

  • The Train to Impossible Places: a Cursed Delivery –   P. G. Bell

    Harper Collins November 2018 ISBN: 9781474948616 ISBN 10: 1474948618 Imprint: Usborne – GB List Price: 19.99 AUD Like Suzy you would no doubt be astonished to wake up in the middle of the night to find a very grumpy troll laying railway tracks straight through your house.  And even more astounded when a gigantic steam train comes rumbling through…