‘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 story of how Ishmael came to have his name to anyone and everyone at all opportunities – to Ishmael’s constant embarrassment.

This novel is an entertaining look at high school life, and includes issues such as bullying, girls and, what to do with your annoying little sister. Along the way, we meet Barry Bagsley, the school bully who is not at all funny, Miss Tarango, the pretty new English teacher and the new boy James Scobie, geek incarnate.

The pace picks up as Ishmael is talked into joining the debating team, and he ends up in the excruciating situation of being first speaker with no preparation and no warning. This horrible incident has some unexpected consequences.

What this book does so well is to deal with the issue of bullying in an innovative and unexpected manner. When Ishmael is given the perfect chance to get his revenge on the bully, he does something quite unprecedented.

I found this book a hilarious and delightful read, and often found myself laughing out loud, as I shared with Ishmael one excruciatingly embarrassing incident after another. This novel is witty and clever with language, and the geek James Scobie is a masterful portrayal.  However, behind the amusement, some important issues are resolved in a way that is not simplistic and the emotion is real and authentic.

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 is Lonnie, who is endearingly vague but annoyingly uninvolved in any practical help around the house. He seems to be searching for someone to attach himself to as his dad left when Lonnie was only six. The father is now just a voice on the phone who rings his kids at birthdays. Mum is a social worker who brings home “lame ducks” from the nursing home where she works.

Then there are the grandparents – Grandma May, who has an imaginary friend, Sef, and Grandpa Stan, who has threatened Lonnie with an axe. Added to this mix is Clara Lee, the Chinese/Australian university student who Lonnie falls in love with.

What is unexpected about this book is that though Lily is the central character, all the other characters have important voices in the story. I loved the insight we get into how the grandparents feel about their lives, and how they become as real and as important as Lily. We don’t just see them from her point of view – where they are perceived as simply eccentric and incomprehensible.

When Grandma May decides that she will put on a grand party at her house in Katoomba, all these threads start to come together. Lily wishes with all her heart that this party will be a success; in fact that it will be “one whole and perfect day”. All the characters begin to plan to make their journey up the mountains, and it becomes a symbolic journey not just a physical one. They are searching for reconciliation and meaning, and, for love.

Finally the big day dawns, and Lily’s question: “Why did people have to come in families?” is answered with one whole and perfect, complex and unpredictable day in the mountains.

I loved this novel with its compassion and warmth and the growth in each of the characters. However, I felt the ending, though deliberate, was just too neat! Everybody forgives everybody else and even the long lost Dad turns up. Life isn’t like that though – we just wish it was.

‘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 with old fashioned brown end-papers and comes with delicate pencil illustrations drawn by the author. The last third of the book is called an ‘Explicarium’, being a glossary of terms and explanations including appendices – there are marvellous maps and diagrams, even a calendar.

With anticipation, you begin the story of Rossamund, who lives in an orphanage, where he is teased by the other children because he has a girl’s name. When the hiring season comes for the children, he is chosen to be a lamplighter and sets off on a journey to his employment. Here begins a fantastical adventure, where he meets many strange creatures. One of these is Europe, a fulgar, a monster fighter whose arms are covered with tattoos made from the blood of the monsters he has killed.

‘Foundling’ is not an epic fantasy with grand battles and heroes. Rather, it is a strange journey set in the world of the Half Continent where people wear tricorne hats and carry flintlock pistols. Some are humans, some are monsters, and some are surgically altered creatures. Rossamund has to work out who is to be trusted, and who is to be feared. I felt it most closely resembled ‘Alice in Wonderland’ with its dreamlike quality, and monsters resembling the Jabberwocky.

The pace of the book is slow at first, but persistence is rewarded as it improves in the second half. I look forward with anticipation to the next instalments.

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 there are many layers of meaning.

‘The Red Shoe’ is the story of three girls, aged 6, 11 and 15, living in a remote house at Palm Beach in the 1950’s. Matilda is the youngest, then there is Francis, who is refusing to go to school, and Elizabeth, suffering a mental breakdown. The story is told from the perspective of Matilda, the youngest sister, and Dubosarsky has captured the six year old point of view skilfully. One fascinating element is Matilda’s imaginary friend, Floreal. He is not the usual alter ego, but is a 22 year old Argonaut who has come out of the radio. Instead of being comforting, he is often blunt and sarcastic, but he helps to be a commentary on events she doesn’t comprehend. The disjointed nature of the book comes because Matilda’s childish mind is often describing events beyond her understanding.

We, as readers, are given clues to these outside events using the device of intertextuality. The book includes excerpts from the Sydney Morning Herald from April 8th to 30th, 1954. These newspaper articles concern the Petrov Affair, Einstein and the Atomic Bomb, the Cold War and the polio epidemic of the time.

There are three main plot lines which are interwoven in ‘The Red Shoe’. These are the lives of the three girls, their parents’ relationship and the politics of the outside world. Dubosarsky skilfully interweaves these by using evocative imagery involving red shoes. There are the red shoes of Hans Christian Anderson’s fairy tale, told at the beginning of the book to Matilda, the red shoes of their mother, and the red shoe of the wife of Russian spy, Vladimir Petrov. This imagery evokes an atmosphere of foreboding and mystery. We feel more and more that something terrible is about to happen.

I feel that this book has a more limited audience than some of the others on the short list. It is recommended for extension students and advanced readers. Also, it would probably appeal more to girls than boys. Adults who lived in the era of the fifties will enjoy reliving the history of that period.

‘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 the reader immediately into a world that is twisted askew from our familiar one. We are given no explanations as we plunge into the strange scenarios and try to find our feet. For example, in the first story, ‘Baby Jane’, Dylan has to help an alien queen to give birth to her baby. But these alien characters – a soldier, a queen and a bear, are actually toys grown to terrifying and unpredictable life.

Another story, ‘Winkie’, has Wee Willie Winkie as a serial killer stalking a town to catch any children outside after dark. He wears a nightgown made from a patchwork of the skins of his victims. Two of the stories are a picture of heaven, ‘A Feather in the Breast of God’, and hell, ‘Under Hell, Over Heaven’, but not as we usually imagine them.

One of the most remarkable stories is ‘Hero Vale’, set at an English boarding school. But don’t expect a comfortable Harry-Potter feel. These students have adventures which are usually fatal, but if survived, they change the victors forever.

I love Margo Lanagan’s stories because they are completely unique. You will not find anything like them anywhere. Be prepared to be amazed, frightened and transported.