Nat Luurtsema made a splash with her first story about Lou Brown in Girl Out of Water, which saw her training a team of the school’s hottest boys in synchronised swimming. Now Lou is back in a new adventure which is just as slick and funny as the original and filled with sharp observations of teen and family life. Despite a variety of problems – both parents are now unemployed, her best friend Hannah has been co-opted into the prom committee by the class mean girls, and even lovely boyfriend Gabe is spending more time with his (all female) debating teammates than with her – Lou stays cheerful, and the worse things get for her, the funnier they are for readers. Guaranteed to make you laugh out loud, this is another perfect summer read.
Definitely one to recommend to fans of Holly Smale’s Geek Girl series.
The lives and loves of Lou Brown, Girl Out of Luck.Poverty sucks. Dad's timing the family's showers and refusing to turn on the heating. Mum has arranged for Lou to get lifts to school with Drippy Dermot and his eccentric mother in the Van of Doom. And lentils seem to feature in EVERY SINGLE MEAL. Lou is still coming down from her brief moment of TV super-stardom and getting to grips with the fact that - hold the news - SHE HAS A BOYFRIEND, but with both parents out of work, life isn't all plain sailing. Throw in Hannah's obsession with the school prom, Dad's strange shed activity and Lav's brief flirtation with a modelling career, and suddenly training a dance troupe to swim underwater seems like a walk in the park.
Nat Luurtsema was a stand-up comic for eight years and is now a comedy writer,author and film-maker. She was nominated for a BAFTA for her first short film and she has since writtenand/or directed four more shorts. She regularly collaborates in comedy writers’rooms and is an occasional co-host on the podcast The Guilty Feminist.
She writes funny books for children and teenagers, with Opie Jones being her first middle grade book.
