Bettina Belitz » Luzie and Leander – Tricky Confused « 11+, January 2011 232 pages, 13.5 x 21.0 cm ISBN 978-3-7855-7264-1 soft cover with flaps 12,00 € (D)

Since Leander saved her life, Luzie is less cross with him and slowly gets used to the idea of having him around all the time. Of course he still drives her crazy handing in school reports in her name entitled “My life with Johnny Depp” and making a fool of her in front of the whole class.

However, Luzie has other things to worry about: Despite their promises her friends Seppo, Serdan and Billy have still not talked to their parents and therefore can not go on with the Parkour training. If it wasn‘t for Leander, Luzie would die of boredom. A school trip to a castle is promising a change. At first Luzie is enthused when she fiends out that Seppo is going to accompany the younger students to the trip. But despite Luzie‘s hopes Seppo is totally distracted by Kelly, the blond exchange student from the US. His not paying any attention to his friends slowly makes him loose their respect for him. Nevertheless there still is this strange feeling in Luzie‘s stomach when she watches Seppo and Kelly together. Does she still care for him more than she pretends to do? She has not much time to ponder on her feelings as Leander has decided to find out what love is about and picks her best friend Sophie as a test object. Luzie has trouble keeping him from being discovered. On top of that her other friend Serdan suddenly starts acting weirdly and doesn‘t talk to Luzie any more.

Matters get more and more complicated on the last evening of the trip: A round of Spin The Bottle leads to Leander kissing Sophie and Luzie despite her plan to kiss Seppo ends up smooching Serdan. It seems Leander has quickly become an expert in love sickness when being discovered by Luzie standing drunk on top of the castle‘s highest tower at night.

 

Key Points:

- witty and romantic entertainment for girls aged 12+
- romance and first love are as well a topic as friendship and sense of responsibility
- wild Luzie and her conservative guardian angel Leander conquered the hearts of the readers already with their small weaknesses and their big hearts
- Leander‘s attempts to find his way around the human world cause many entertaining scenes and lots of trouble for Luzie
- Luzie has to slowly settle into her future adult self but not without the usual teenage tantrums and embarrassing situations
- Luzie is a great role model for strong modern – less girlish – girls
- the cover illustrations by Kheira Lindner perfectly reflect the emphatic tone of Bettina Belitz‘s storytelling voice

Bettina Belitz was born 1973 in Heidelberg. Her parents provided her with loads of new books during ...