- Don't Call Me Ishmael
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Don't Call Me Ishmael 
First edition coverAuthor(s) Michael Gerard Bauer Illustrator Michael Gerard Bauer Cover artist Joe Bauer (Australian edition) Country Australia Language English Genre(s) Young-adult fiction Publisher Scholastic (Australia)
HarperTeen (USA)Publication date 2006 Media type Print Pages 277 pp ISBN ISBN 1-86291-666-7 (Australia)
ISBN 0-06-134834-1 (USA)OCLC Number 156423000 Preceded by The Running Man Followed by Ishmael and the Return of the Dugongs Don't Call Me Ishmael is a young adult novel by Australian author Michael Gerard Bauer. It is about Ishmael Leseur, a 14-year-old boy, and his experiences in Year Nine. It won the 2008 award for children's literature at Writers' Week, Australia's oldest writers' festival.[1] It was short-listed for the Children's Book Council of Australia's Book of the Year award in the older reader category in 2007.[2]
Contents
Plot summary
The novel's main character, Ishmael, is named after the narrator of Moby-Dick. He was given the name because just before he was born, his parents performed a scene from the novel. He is fourteen years old and the world's only sufferer from the self-diagnosed Ishmael Leseur's Syndrome – a chronic ailment capable of turning an otherwise normal person into a "walking disaster area registering nine point nine on the open-ended imbecile scale". Ishmael showed no symptoms of his apparent syndrome until his first day of secondary school. The school bully, Barry Bagsley, teases him about his name. He tries to avoid Barry and acts invisible but swears to stand up to Barry in Year Nine.
His Year Nine teacher, Miss Tarango, tells the whole class about the name Ishmael coming from Moby-Dick, which gives Barry and his friends more names to tease Ishmael with. Ishmael later intervenes when he sees Barry and his friends tease a younger boy from Year Four. A new boy called James Scobie becomes a target for bullying because of his appearance. However, James responds to the bully's taunts with humour. He tells the class that he is fearless because he had a brain tumour that damaged the part of his brain that feels fear. Barry is the only person that does not believe James. About a week later Barry puts a lot of insects and spiders in James's desk, but James is not frightened. During a rugby match James's fearlessness changes the course of the game.
Ishmael, Scobie, a hilarious, outgoing and independent boy called Orazio Zorzotto, an overweight, sci-fi geek called Bill Kingsley and a very smart nerd Ignatius Prindabel participate in debating. Barry and his friends mock Bill about his weight by destroying his debating certificate. Kelly Faulkner, a girl Ishmael starts to fall in love with, thanks Ishmael because she is the sister of the Year Four boy Ishmael saved from Barry. On the last day of school at the 'end-of-year extravaganza thingy', Ishmael invents a prayer that will humiliate Barry. However, he eventually decides not to say his prayer, because he does not want to humiliate Barry's innocent parents, ruin the ceremony for the people who worked to make it or become the person Barry was. Ishmael then receives a letter from Kelly. He runs out on to the school's oval, completely ecstatic and bursting with happiness, and reads the letter, which says that she has invited him to her friend's party. He finally realizes that his life is not as bad as he once believed.
Review of the book
"I'm fourteen years old and I have Ishmael Leseur's Syndrome. There is no cure." So begins this delightful account of a boy’s journey through Year Nine. Ishmael Leseur – yes, he does have the same name as the disease because, the reader quickly learns, his name and the consequences of having such a name, ARE the disease. You see, Ishmael is being bullied, and the bully’s focus is on Ishmael’s name. From the moment that Barry Bagsley says “Ishmael? What kind of wussy-crap name is that?” Ishmael’s life changes.. He says: "I learnt to make myself as small a target as possible. I became an expert at this. I became virtually invisible to Barry Bagsley and his mates. Sometimes I could barely see myself."
All this changes in year nine, when a new boy, James Scobie, joins the class. James is different. Very different. And he is paired with Ishmael in class. Soon the pair have struck up a friendship, and together with their collection of other Year Nine misfits, they learn to take on not just Barry Bagsley, but also anything else life throws at them.
This is a humorous book which will have readers laughing out loud, and while it also has some frightening and emotional moments, it is this humour which keeps the novel moving along and stops the reader from wanting to put it down.
Michael Gerard Bauer’s first book, The Running Man, won the CBCA’s Book of the Year award. Don’t Call Me Ishmael is similar in the quality of its writing, but is a very different book in most other aspects, being a lighter read. This is a good thing as it gives Bauer a chance to show the breadth of his talents. Teen readers will love Ishmael and his friends and this book is sure to win accolades, too.
Dedication
This book is dedicated to "To Greg, Keith and Anne, because it's all about friendship, love and laughter ... and because I took your threats seriously."
Australian front and back cover
The cover of Don't Call Me Ishmael is actually a photograph. Michael Gerald Bauer and his son Joe created the cover by drawing a picture of the boy attached to Moby Dick and put objects on. They had used two things on the cover to photoshop, a spider on the piece of wood made to take the picture and the publishers had taken some writing off a pencil case to place their logos.
References
- ^ God, the Coetzee effect and the Carey gang, The Sydney Morning Herald.
- ^ Fertile field for young minds, Adelaide Now.
External links
- Cliches don't do us justice, review of Don't Call Me Ishmael in The Age.
- Excerpt from Don't Call Me Ishmael.
Categories: 2006 novels | Australian young adult novels
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