The following version of this book was used to create this study guide: Russell, Karen. St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves. Vintage Books. 2006. Kindle.

St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves is a collection of ten short stories. “Ava Wrestles the Alligator” is narrated by Ava in first-person present. Ava, who is 12, and her sister, Ossie, who is 16, have been left alone in Swamplandia!, their family’s alligator-themed-park, for the summer. Ossie is possessed by demons, so Ava has to take care of the gators, and she meets a strange “gypsy Bird man” who calls to her with a bird-whistle. Ava then goes to “Swamp Prom” with Ossie, who dances with her ghost boyfriend, Luscious. That night, Ossie leaves a goodbye note for Ava and heads into the swamp. Ava wakes up, finds the note, and goes into the swamp to save her sister from drowning.

“Haunting Olivia” is narrated in first-person present by Timothy Sparrow, who is 12. He and his 14-year-old brother, Wallow, find a pair of diabolical goggles that let them see ghosts in the water. They swim around their island looking for the ghost of their sister, Olivia, who supposedly drowned while sledding in a crab shell after her brothers left her to go back to Granana’s cabin. They find the Glowworm Grotto and Timothy looks inside the water, but all the ghosts blur together.

“Z.Z.’s Sleep-Away Camp for Disordered Dreamers” is narrated in first-person present by Elijah, a teenage boy attending summer camp for children and teens with sleep disorders. He and his best friend, Ogli, are both cursed with a disorder that makes them dream postmonitions about terrible events in the past. Elijah has a crush on Emma, who is the only kid at the camp with an unknown ailment. The camp director’s wife, Annie, starts killing the camp’s sheep in her sleep, and she forces Elijah to get rid of the body of one. When Elijah goes back to his cabin afterwards, he learns that Ogli has stopped having postmonitions.

“The Star-Gazer’s Log of Summer-Time Crime” is narrated by teenager Oliver White in first-person present. He and his twin, Molly, are spending the summer at a hotel on an island with their dad, a retired astronaut. Oliver goes out at night to look at the constellations, but he runs into Raffy, the coolest kid from school, who ropes him into the “Comical Ironical Crime Ring,” whose goal is to capture a nest of newly hatched baby turtles by using flashlights to confuse their natural instincts. However, when the turtles actually hatch, Oliver sees that there is nothing funny about the prank.

“From Children’s Reminiscences of the Westward Migration” is narrated in the first-person present by Jacob, whose father, Asterion, is the Minotaur. Asterion becomes obsessed with travelling to the Western Territories on the Overland Territories. He convinces his wife and children to join him, and they head out with Asterion pulling the wagon himself. Along the way, Asterion and Jacob’s mother get into several fights, and Asterion’s health deteriorates.

“Lady Yeti and the Palace of Artificial Snows” is narrated by Reggie in first-person past. His father works as a janitor at the Palace of Artificial Snows, which has an Apes on Ice show, and an adults-only event called the Blizzard. Reggie’s friend, Badger, becomes obsessed with going to the Blizzard because he thinks his father is cheating on his ill mother at the event. The boys hide in the palace and watch the event. When Badger sees his father, he tries to turn off the snow, but accidentally unleashes the orangutangs. When the Blizzard ends, Badger sees his father skating with another woman and contemplates running him over with the Zamboni machine, but instead he just polishes the ice.

“The City of Shells” is narrated by a third-person narrator who goes back and forth between focalization on Barnaby and Big Red, and between past and present tense. Barnaby is the janitor at the City of Shells, a “Merman’s Stonehenge” full of Giant Conchs. After the park shuts down, he cleans up the shells and hears a strange noise that he thinks is a ghost. However, it turns out to be a little girl who climbed into the conch during her school field trip and is now stuck. Barnaby tries to get her out, but he falls in with her and hurts his leg. A storm rolls in and the shell begins to shake with thunder. Barnaby tries to escape, but Big Red climbs further into the shell.

“Out to Sea” is narrated in present-tense by a third-person narrator who focalizes attention on Sawtooth, an old man living in a retirement community consisting of houseboats. He becomes obsessed with his teen volunteer who is ordered to visit him, so he starts leaving things out for her to steal. When she tells him it is her last day visiting him, he tries to tell her that he loves her, but she does not believe him, and then she leaves.

“Accident Brief, Occurrence # 00/422” is narrated in first-person present by Tek, who is in the Waitaki Valley Boys Chori that performs on the top of a glacier every year to cause an avalanche with their high notes. Tek gets on one of the planes with Rangi, a Moa orphan who has had selective mutism ever since he was adopted, and his pet cinnamon bear was shot. When their plane crashes, Rangi drags Tek away from rescuers' sights and the boys hide in a cave full of pirate treasure. After the rescue plane flies away, Rangi throws their trackers away, and Tek decides to hope that they might still somehow work.

“St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves” is narrated by in first-person past by Claudette, who was brought to the school with her sisters after their parents, who were werewolves, sent them to become “naturalized citizens of human society.” All of them started to acclimate to their new culture, except for the youngest, Mirabella, who remained wild. Eventually, Mirabella was sent back to the forest and the other girls graduated.