The Weser-Kurier writes about the recently published youth novel "Ella and Max and the Singing Butterflies" by Monika Dietrich-Lüders:
"The 13-year-old detective duo involuntarily finds themselves faced with a new case. "Ella and Max and the Singing Butterflies" is the second children's crime novel by Monika Dietrich-Lüders. While the two friends, who have known each other since first grade, only had to deal with a strange classmate in "On the Trail of the Voodoo Magician", here they meet a whole group of strange people whose peculiarities are mainly fed by prejudices become. Uncovering them and enlightening others is the real main task of the two. Ella and Max come across malicious and mendacious adults. Even if their deeds are not described in full detail, their mere suggestion may stir the hearts of gentle minds. The tender, almost poetic passages from the emotional life of the mute outsider Jakob have a very forgiving and calming effect here. They give the extraordinarily vividly written children's crime thriller the necessary lightness that is needed to digest violent crimes.
With Ella and Max, Monika Dietrich-Lüders has created a clever pair of children who are naturally cautious and approach their cases with great sensitivity. "The Singing Butterflies" picks up where the first case left off, at the beginning of the summer holidays. Young readers don't have to have read "On the Trail of Voodoo Magic" to understand the second case, but they are missing out on an exciting read if they don't. Because already in the first volume, Ella and Max are involved in a story that could not be more exciting - this is about "magic in the present and future". In the end, "The Singing Butterflies" is about dissolving the ghost of the past."
Magali Trautmann
