cover of Wish
Posted in Award Winners, MG Novels, So Many Good Books

Wish

Posted on by Susan Uhlig

Marvelous Middle Grade Monday

Wish (Farrar Straus Giroux, 2016) by Barbara O’Connor pulls on the heart strings!

Charlie Reese has been sent away from her home in Raleigh to live with an aunt and uncle she doesn’t know in a “sorry excuse for a town” called Colby. And as her best friend, Alvina, told her, she’s going to school with hillbilly kids. Charlie doesn’t want to be here, doesn’t want to stay here, and definitely isn’t going to like it here. She wishes on everything. But an unexpected friend, a stray dog, and love make her change her wish.

This book was a New York Times Bestseller, Junior Library Guild Selection, American Booksellers Association Best Books of the Year, 2016 Parents Choice Gold Award, Nerdy Book Club Award 2016, and SCBWI Crystal Kite Award 2017 winner.

Read about this award-winning author here and check out her current books here. I recommended her How to Steal a Dog book here.

cover of Eyes of the Forest
Posted in So Many Good Books, YA Novels

Eyes of the Forest

Posted on by Susan Uhlig

Eyes of the Forest (Henry Holt and Company, 2021) by April Henry is a bit different than the author’s usual YA mystery or thriller. This one has humor and purple prose (you’ll have to read it to find out) as well as danger.

The problem: Bob is missing. Only Brigid can help.

Bob aka R. M. Haldon is a fantasy writer of an epic series who has writer’s block and is not writing the book, Eyes of the Forest. Seventeen-year-old Brigid is his biggest fan and has maintained R. M. Haldon’s fantasy world database since she was twelve. Her classmate Derrick loves LARPing (live action role play) but is not sticking to only pretend events. Ajay is involved because he invited a girl to lunch.

It really is a fun read. The book was a finalist for the Oregon Book Award and was on the Tome Society “It List.”

Read some fun facts about April or check out all her teen books.