Am I Right or Am I Right? » (Reprint)

Barry Jonsberg teaches high school English in Darwin, Australia. Am I Right or Am I Right? was the winner of the Adelaide Festival Award for Children's Literature, one of Australia's most competitive literary awards.

Calma Harrison is in love. Not just with herself, but also with the handsome checkout guy at Crazi-Cheep. So stocking shelves at the Crazi- Cheep seems like the perfect job—until that annoying customer tries to hold up the store. . . .

And then there's the small matter of the rest of Calma's life, which is fast falling apart: her absent father turns up after five years and wants to "talk," her mother is clearly living a secret second life, and her new best friend is hiding something horrible.

Calma is sure she knows exactly what's going on. And clearly her direct, personal intervention is required to make things right.
Except . . . if she's wrong. And then her butting in will make everything much, much worse.

Am I Right or Am I Right? is a whip-smart, wise-cracking, big-hearted novel about a girl who is learning that things are not always what they seem, and how to start again when you've gotten it all so very wrong.

Publishers Weekly

"Calma's assured and mostly comical account is well-nigh irresistible," wrote PW about The Crimes and Punishments of Miss Payne. Her life seems just as complex in Am I Right or Am I Right? by Barry Jonsberg: someone tries to hold up the Crazi-Cheep where Calma works as a shelf-stocker, her father resurfaces after a five-year absence, and her mother and best friend both seem to be leading double (or at least secret) lives. Can she fix everyone? Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information.