: Amanda Addison
: Looking for Lucie
: Neem Tree Press
: 9781911107699
: 1
: CHF 9.00
:
: Jugendbücher ab 12 Jahre
: English
: 272
: kein Kopierschutz
: PC/MAC/eReader/Tablet
: ePUB
Looking for Lucie is a contemporary YA novel that explores identity, self-discovery, and newfound friendship as an 18-year-old girl sets out to uncover her ethnic heritage and family history. 'Where are you really from?' It's a question every brown girl in a white-washed town is familiar with, and one that Lucie has never been able to answer. All she knows is that her mother is white, she's never met her father, and she looks nothing like the rest of her family. She can't even talk about it because everyone says it shouldn't matter! Well, it matters to Lucie and-with her new friend Nav, who knows exactly who he is-she's determined to find some answers. What do you do when you question your entire existence? You do a DNA test.

Amanda Addison is an award-winning author of books for adults and children. Her books have been shortlisted for The CILIP Carnegie and Kate Greenaway Medal and the Searchlight Writing Novel Opening Award. She is inspired by travel, textiles, and the natural world, and often explores themes of home and belonging in her writing. She is passionate about inclusivity and diversity in publishing and telling untold stories depicting characters from the Global Majority. Amanda holds an MA in Writing the Visual, lectures in Art& Design, and runs Creative Writing workshops at the National Centre for Writing. Amanda lives in Norfolk, UK, with her family.

Thursday 18th August


Lucie

I sit bolt upright in bed. There is a clanging noise. My first thought is: burglars or deer? Burglars. Because according to the neighbourhood watch posters, Reedby is the crime capital of the world. Apparently, thieves drive around the village in the middle of the night emptying sheds and garages of bikes, rowing machines and lawn mowers. That’s probably because there are so many posh houses around here. Our chalet bungalow isn’t one of them!

There are herds of muntjac deer living on the edge of the village. Mum says that though the deer look cute wandering around the garden, they are a nuisance. She’s sore because they eat all her tulips. That isn’t the worst problem in my opinion. When my friends from college were over for a barbecue, deer noises started from behind the hedge. The grunts and groans of mating deer are really loud and embarrassing. We cracked up all the way through eating our burgers.

“Just like the Wimbledon final,” said my mate, Sam. “Grunts ‘n’ all!”

“That’s the only entertainment you get around here!” I laughed, though it wasn’t really a joke.

I creep over to the window. Pitch dark. It must be cloudy as there’s no moon and no stars. There is also no revving of engines or grunting of bucks. Only the deafening silence of living in the countryside. The noise must have been a shed door banging. Nothing interesting ever happens here. This is why I want to go to art school in London and live the 24/7 life where buses don’t stop at teatime and bars and cafes are open until the early hours. There is another reason I want to leave too. I’ve never felt that I fit in here; I don’t look the part, not the way Mum, Dad and Maisie do. In a big city there are other people who look just like me.

I check the time. 2.47am, Thursday 18th August. I always think of the colour orange when anyone says Thursday, but today all I can think is:Results Day.

I need to go back to sleep, but I am tempted to check my messages and see if anyone else is awake. I also really want to check my emails to see if the DNA results have come through. I’ve heard that these kinds of automated emails can arrive in the middle of the night. But I am really strict with myself, no phone after midnight, just like when I was doing my exams. I need to go back to sleep, otherwise I’ll never wake up in time to catch the bus into col