YA Novels – Page 35 – Susan Uhlig

Nation

Posted on May 4, 2009 by Susan Uhlig

“we become what we have to be”

The above thought by Mau sums up the theme of this book on survival. Several natural disasters change the lives of many people in Nation by Terry Pratchett (HarperCollins 2008).
Mau has gone to the Boy’s Island to become a man, but after the big wave, no one of the nation is waiting for him when he gets home. He does however find a girl, the sole survivor of the ship that wrecked on his island. And then there are those searching for the 139th heir, since the king and everyone else in between has died from plague.
And that’s only a hint of what’s going to happen.
This moving, funny story will not disappoint. And if you haven’t come across Mr. Pratchett’s Tiffany Aching or humorous Discworld stories, you should check them out too. www.terrypratchettbooks.com
Thanks, Jenn, for the loan of this book.

A Curse as Dark as Gold

Posted on March 6, 2009 by Susan Uhlig

A Curse as Dark as Gold by Elizabeth C. Bunce is more than just a retelling of Rumpelstiltskin. It feels like real people with believable problems in a real setting and time period.

Here’s a brief introduction: Charlotte’s father dies, and she struggles to keep the family’s woolen mill running. The family is in debt; the mill is cursed. Her mother’s uncle turns up to take them away “from all this” but she and her sister refuse. If the mill dies, so does the village. A stranger, Jack Spinner, shows up and Charlotte accepts his offer of help. But what will be the cost?

A Curse as Dark as Gold (Arthur A. Levine Books, 2008) has already won awards: Smithsonian 2008 Notable Children’s Book; ALA Best Book for Young Adults, 2009; William C. Morris YA Debut Award, 2009; CCBC Blue Ribbon. Congrats to this debut author! (Who is also a very nice person.)

Learn more about Elizabeth at her website or at her blog. I’ve heard she made some costumes for the time period of her book, too.

MG Novels, So Many Good Books, YA Novels

Assassin & Confessions from the Principal’s Chair

Posted on August 24, 2008 by Susan Uhlig

More books I’ve been feasting on. (I refuse to post about the books that strike me as famine.)

I’ve read two books by Anna Myers recently. She’s an SCBWI Regional Advisor in Oklahoma and always makes me laugh when I meet her. I’d suddenly realized after the SCBWI LA Conference this year that I hadn’t read any of her books. Duh! Both of these books are in that Tween land where they are sometimes classified as middle grade (mg) and sometimes as young adult (YA).

Assassin (Walker and Company, 2005)

This story is told in alternating viewpoints – Bella, a young impressionable girl, who has lost her mother to death and been abandoned by her father, wants to be on the stage, and Wilkes, better know as John Wilkes
Booth, the actor who shot and killed Abraham Lincoln. I sometimes was
annoyed with Bella, but Wilkes was totally convincing. Don’t skip the
prologue!

Confessions from the Principal’s Chair (Walker and Company, 2005)

Bird is sitting in the principal’s chair and how she got there and what she does takes you for a ride in the mind of an 8^th grade girl.
This book is funny, and too true–boy, do I remember those feelings of trying to make my mother feel bad- and has a really satisfying ending.

Think I’ll have to go read more books by Anna…

If you want to know more about her, go to her website at http://annamyers.info/

So Many Good Books, YA Novels

Book of a Thousand Days

Posted on August 24, 2008 by Susan Uhlig

Seems as if I go through spells where I don’t find books I care to blog about. And, of course, there are those times where I’m not reading as much kid’s lit as I’d like. But recently, I’ve been back on track and reading and have found some great books.
Here’s the first one I want to share. (I’m making my husband read it and know my daughter will want to read it. And I have to own my own
copy…)

Book of a Thousand Days (Bloomsbury, 2007) by Shannon Hale

Wow, have I found a new favorite author.

Dashti is a poor mucker girl who agrees to be maid for Lady Saren. The kicker is that Lady Saren is being locked in the tower for seven years for refusing to marry the man her father has chosen. Shannon Hale’s words have magically not only put us in the tower with the two girls, but we also see Dashti’s life before. I found this book very difficult to put down from the moment I read the compelling first line.

On Shannon Hale’s website she has some deleted scenes. Don’t read them until after you’ve read the book! But it’s fun to get an insight into her writing process.

P.S. Thanks to Readergirlz for directing me to this book.

So Many Good Books, YA Novels

I’d Tell You I Love You But Then I’d Have to Kill You

Posted on February 19, 2008February 10, 2025 by Susan Uhlig

When are they going to make the movie?

I just read I’d Tell You I Love You But Then I’d Have to Kill You by Ally Carter. The book is well written, and fun.

Cammie Morgan goes to boarding school. It may look like a school for snooty rich girls on the outside, but really it’s a school to train female spies!

The opening grabs you right in and immediately sets the tone for the rest of the book. I know I’ll be checking out the sequel.

Read about author Ally Carter at her website: http://www.allycarter.com/