Retelling – Susan Uhlig

Award Winners, MG Novels, So Many Good Books, YA Novels

Afia in the Land of Wonders

Posted on October 27, 2025January 12, 2026 by Susan Uhlig

It’s Marvelous Middle Grade Monday!

I loved Afia in the Land of Wonders (Scholastic Press, 2025) written and illustrated by Mia Araujo. It’s such an intriguing and well done fantasy set in Western Africa (not tribe specific). Isn’t that cover gorgeous? (And what you can’t tell is the gold is embossed.)

Afia’s beloved twin has always been happy to work with their family in the crystal business, but Afia wants more. She wants to explore outside of Dafra. Have adventures. In disobedience to her family she leaves them and gets much more adventure than she wants.

The writing and the illustrations are beautiful. I didn’t want to stop reading, but the ending is very satisfying.

This book is a Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection and a Barnes & Noble Children’s & YA Book Awards Finalist for 2025. The main character is 16 but very approachable for the middle grade audience.

This illustrated novel was the author’s debut. I hope she is working on further books! Read more about Mia here and see her paintings and drawings.

So Many Good Books, YA Novels

Beastly

Posted on August 27, 2009 by Susan Uhlig

Modern-day Retelling

“Unexpected Changes” chat group chats mix in with Kyle’s side of the story in Beastly (HarperTeen, 2007) by Alex Flinn. This book is not just a modern day Beauty and the Beast. Though it is that, too, with a character having to examine the darkness within. It’s also a story about being abandoned by parents and new friendships. There’s even some humor. And don’t you just love the cover?
The story will be made into a movie for release in 2010! But read the book first.
Read more about this young adult author at her website: www.alexflinn.com.

So Many Good Books, YA Novels

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.