It's Not All About You, Calma!

Barry Jonsberg (author)

Allen & Unwin, Australia: 2005

ISBN: 1741144841

Genres: humour, realistic fiction

Issues: change, family, friendship, identity, loyalty

Shortlisted for the CBCA Book of a Year for Older Readers, 2006.

Calma is a bright, wilful teenager whose ability to leap to conclusions is unstoppable. Absolutely convinced of her own ‘rightness' in all things, Calma's self-absorption would be unbearable if it were not for the fact that she's a good person who would lie under a bus for a friend if it seemed necessary.

Her love of English makes her narration sharp and very funny. She warns the reader she's an unreliable narrator and then proceeds to lead them up the garden path anyway. This is a story about friendship, family, and loyalty. It's about the disastrous consequences of making assumptions. It's about being brainy and over-confident. It's about poetry. It's about the need to learn from your mistakes.

Jonsberg has written a wryly humorous, fast-paced narrative that will entertain readers whilst exploring some very realistic situations and relationships. The characters are wonderfully portrayed beings with believable, flawed personalities who stumble through the usual embarrassing events that constitute normal life for most of us. By creating a character who is herself fascinated by writing, Jonsberg is able to introduce the reader to various narrative styles and Calma plays with mode and genre. Various poetic forms are similarly introduced and Calma's poems provide lyrical interludes between chapters that still give the reader insight into the less flippant side of her personality.

A thoroughly enjoyable read, this is a novel that will particularly appeal to gifted readers and writers.

Highly recommended.