Just So Stories

Random Reviews and Ramblings from Redcliffe

  • Florence & Fox The Pet Mouse – Zanni Louise. Illustrated by Anna Pignataro

    Walker Books Australia July 2024 ISBN13:9781760655525 Australia RRP:$25.99 New Zealand RRP:$27.99 Well if this isn’t just too cute for words, I don’t know what is! It is both charming and sweet, and I’m already in love with these little characters, as will be your Smalls – guaranteed! When Fox asks Florence if she wants to…

  • Seed to Sky: life in the Daintree – Pamela Freeman and Liz Anelli

    Walker Books April 2024 ISBN13:9781760653750 Australia RRP:$26.99 New Zealand RRP:$28.99 Book 3 of Nature Storybooks Series If you haven’t been to the Daintree and FNQ, I’m suggesting right now that you put it on your bucketlist. I have been there three times, the first as a little kid of about 6 after a long train trip…

  • An Amazing Camping Trip – Jackie Hosking/Lesley Vamos

    Walker Books Australia ISBN13: 9781760654948 Australia RRP: $24.99 New Zealand RRP: $27.99 Jackie Hosking’s excellent rhyming is a byword in the kids lit community and this is another great example. While neither she, nor illustrator Lesley Vamos, are First Nations creators (in fact, Jackie is ‘Nigerian-born Cornish Australian’), I think this is a terrific book…

  • Big Gorilla: a book of opposites – Anthony Browne

    Walker Books Australia May 2024 ISBN13:9781529509588 Australia RRP:$27.99 New Zealand RRP:$29.99 It is no secret that I absolutely adore Anthony Browne’s work – always have, always will. He is without doubt, in my top 10 creators list. And, like so many others, I particularly love his apes. This new book is just a lovely way…

  • Tearaway Coach – Neridah McMullin/Andrew McLean

    Walker Books Australia April 2024 ISBN13:9781760653170 Australia RRP:$26.99 New Zealand RRP:$28.99 I’m certain that everyone has caught onto Neridah McMullin’s stunning historical picture books, but then again, there are always some who are late to the party. This is the latest, and is both a rousing adventure and a fascinating slice of history that will…

  • The Beehive – Megan Daley/Max Hamilton

    Walker Books Australia February 2024 ISBN13:9781760655228 Australia RRP:$26.99 New Zealand RRP:$28.99 Given it’s World Bee Day, it seems the right time to finally get to this one. I’m happy to say that Megan Daley and I go back quite a long way, and though we don’t often physically cross paths, we have some shared experiences…

  • Information Overload!

    Every now and then it happens. There’s been a gradual build-up on the review shelves, which I doggedly work through but then there’s a sudden rush of many parcels arriving (my postie and I are such good friends after him delivering to my last two houses!), and things go completely catawampus. So despite all my…

  • The Secret Lives of Dragons Prof Zoya Agnis. Alexander Ulkin.

    Walker Books December 2023 Imprint: Flying Eye Books ISBN13: 9781838741174 Australia RRP: $24.99 New Zealand RRP: $27.99 Who doesn’t love dragons? Am I right? You know I am. Young or old, so many of us are fascinated by them and whether they are straight out of Berk or Pottermore or ancient China, their stories, habits…

  • The Big Book of Australian Nursery Rhymes – Frané Lessac

    Walker Books Australia March 2024 ISBN13:9781760655099 Australia RRP:$26.99 New Zealand RRP:$28.99 Frané once again brings her extraordinary talent to a new picture book that epitomises joy in our Australian wildlife and landscapes, this time for the very smallest of Smalls. For those of us with long experience in literacy and teaching, we know that exposing…

  • Those Girls -Pamela Rushby

    Walker Books Australia April 2024 ISBN13:9781760657840 Australia RRP:$19.99 New Zealand RRP:$22.99 Pamela Rushby’s books are always a treat. For me though, it’s a given that those historical fictions set in Brisbane are the most fascinating. Because I didn’t grow up here, I knew a bare minimum of the city’s history prior to moving here in…