Author: Susan Uhlig

cover of My Imaginary Mary
Posted in So Many Good Books, YA Novels

My Imaginary Mary

Posted on by Susan Uhlig

My Imaginary Mary (HarperCollins, 2022) by Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton, Jodi Meadows is another fun romp through an imagined history.

Mary Shelley (teen author of Frankenstein) and Ada Lovelace (world’s first computer programmer) meet and discover they are both fae–magical people. When they team up and make a living breathing automaton, they go on the run from a mad scientist trying to figure out their secrets.

Of course in real life these two never meet, but don’t let what actually happened spoil your enjoyment of this story.

Read about Cynthia and discover her other books here. Ditto for Brodi here. Tritto for Jodi here. The best selling authors have their own team website where they share the following descriptions of their other books:

“MY LADY JANE is Jane Grey meets LadyHawke. (Or The Princess Bride.)” My recommendation here.
“MY PLAIN JANE is Jane Eyre meets Ghostbusters.
MY CALAMITY JANE is the Wild West meets Teen Wolf.
MY CONTRARY MARY is Reign (the TV show) meet The Princess Bride. (Or LadyHawke.) Again, same world as My Lady Jane.“

A new book will be coming in 2024: “MY SALTY MARY will be Pirates of the Caribbean meets The Little Mermaid.”

I need to catch up on the ones I haven’t read.

cover of out of my heart
Posted in Award Winners, MG Novels, So Many Good Books

out of my heart

Posted on by Susan Uhlig

Marvelous Middle Grade Monday

out of my heart by Sharon M. Draper (Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2021) is an amazing book that I wish EVERYONE would read! Such a satisfying story about persistence and friendship. Can you tell I loved it?

Twelve-year-old Melody can’t walk, talk, or feed herself, but she’s smart and she wants to go to camp. She researches and finds a camp for kids with special needs and convinces her parents to let her go. It’s scary–she’s not been away from her parents for so long–and they are going to have her swim and go horseback riding. Can she do all that?!

It’s a sequel to out of my mind, but it’s been so long since I read that book, I didn’t remember much, so this book definitely stands alone. Readers kept asking to know what else happened to Melody in the first book, that Sharon wrote a sequel. Both book promote so much understanding about those who are differently abled. out of my heart was a CCBC Choice (Cooperative Children’s Book Council).

Sharon is an award winning author and teacher. Read about her here. Check out her books here.