Julie Tran has long, long hair and a short, short fuse. Her troubles begin when her teacher sends a note home from school about the one thing that makes her mother go ab-so-lute-ly crazy: head lice. How will Julie and her twin brother Mike survive their Mum's craziness? And what will all the other Vietnamese families say when Julie finds herself in deep, deep trouble - again?
The Long and the Short of it is a ten year old Vietnamese Australian girl's tale of coming to understand her crazy mother and her changing relationship with her twin brother, as she gets to know herself through adversity.