https://michaelgerardbauer.com/2013/05/02/blog-49-in-which-i-tell-the-tale-of-eric-vale/
Ishmael Leseur is fourteen years old and the world’s only sufferer of 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’. According to Ishmael, all his problems stem from the bizarre circumstances of his birth, which resulted in his parents calling him Ishmael after the narrator in Herman Melville’s classic novel Moby Dick.
Ishmael’s problems include a school bully called Barry Bagsley who delights in mashing his name and generally making his life hell, an overwhelming fear of public speaking, and a severe case of unrequited love for the beautiful and ‘perfect’ Kelly Faulkner.
But two new arrivals at St Daniel’s Boys College are set to change Ishmael’s life forever – a bubbly young English teacher called Miss Tarango and James Scobie, a small boy with an odd facial twitch, a brilliant mind and a heart that knows no fear. With the aid of the irrepressible Miss Tarango, Scobie champions debating at St Daniel’s and convinces a reluctant Ishmael to join the Year Nine team – just as a researcher. The rest of the debating team consists of: Bill Kingsley – the daydreaming sci-fi nut; Ignatius Prindabel – a maths and science nerd and repository of irrelevant information, and finally Orazio Zorzotto, a.k.a. Razz, Razza or the Razzman – the class comedian, super confident knowit-all and self-professed guru on the topic of ‘hot chicks’.
With this motley group of friends for support, Ishmael takes on debating, Barry Bagsley and the seemingly unattainable Kelly Faulkner as well as his own doubts and fears in what he describes as ‘the toughest, the weirdest, the most embarrassingly awful … and the best year of my life.’
https://www.pegiwilliams.com.au/pdfs/teachernotes/9781862919327.pdf
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IAqNV7WZYJY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wrGf6VbmmKw