‘Don’t Call Me Ishmael!’ is the story of Ishmael Leseur, a fourteen year old boy, and his tempestuous life at St Daniel’s College. Ishmael begins the book by bemoaning his name which has caused him much suffering. He says he has Ishmael Leseur’s Syndrome for which there is no cure. His father will tell the [...]

The main character in ‘One Whole and Perfect Day’ is Lily, described as “the sensible one in the family”. You can tell she is one of a slightly dysfunctional family, when the first page tells you that by age seven she was getting her big brother up for school in the morning. Her big brother [...]

‘Foundling’ is the first book in a trilogy by D.M. Cornish called ‘Monster Blood Tattoo’. It is set firmly in the fantasy genre and has enormous originality and inventiveness. Just to handle this book before you read it, is to feel its potential to take you into another and strange world. It is beautifully bound [...]

Gemma Stone is convinced that it is a bad thing to chuck a Birkett. She describes it this way:
“In my family, when anyone rides the wave of their emotions, we say they’re chucking a birkett. When the emotion drives out all common sense, we say they’re chucking a big one. The telltale signs are: [...]

I had to read ‘The Red Shoe’ twice before I really appreciated it. At the first reading, I found it frustrating, disjointed and hard-going. However, the second time around I began to appreciate the subtleties of this novel. Unlike the others on the short list, this novel needs to be taken slowly and savoured, as [...]

‘Red Spikes’ is the third book of short stories for Margo Lanagan. Her other two volumes have won numerous awards both in Australia and internationally. These stories are written in the fantasy/horror genre and are quite definitely not for children. They are characterised by a black humour and subverted imagination.
Each of the stories draws [...]