young adult novel – 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

Sea Change

Posted on September 11, 2025September 11, 2025 by Susan Uhlig

I expected good things from Sea Change (Amulet Books, 2025) by Susan Fletcher, as I’ve read the author’s middle grade novels, and wasn’t disappointed. Besides a retelling of Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Little Mermaid” is intriguing in itself. And that cover!

Here’s the first line of the brief prologue: “Sixteen years after the first Mer baby was born, scientists tried to put the genie back in the bottle.”

In a world where illegal gene manipulation produced Mer people, Turtle saves a Normal from drowning. Despite their differences–she has working gills as well as lungs–Turtle is attracted to Kai and spends time on land with him. Now Turtle has a chance to be cured and become Normal. Not only can she then be with Kai, but it will mean she can spend time with the birth family she was taken from. But that will mean leaving her Mer family and friends. What will she choose?

You can see all of the author’s books here and read about Susan here. If interested, read my post about one of her other books.

Award Winners, So Many Good Books, YA Novels

Where the World Ends

Posted on December 20, 2023January 30, 2024 by Susan Uhlig

Where the World Ends (Flatiron Books, 2019) by Geraldine McCaughrean is an amazing historical novel of survival. It’s a 2020 Michael L Printz Honor book, a winner of the 2018 Carnegie Medal (published in the UK by Usborne in 2017) and is on many other lists.

Every summer, men and boys are put ashore on a remote sea stack to harvest birds, eggs, feathers, and oil. But this year, for Quill and his friends, no boat comes to get them. What does it mean that no one came? Is it the end of the world? And how can they survive the winter?

Right from the first line, “His mother gave him a new pair of socks, a puffin to eat on the voyage and a kiss on the cheek.,” we know we are in a different setting. You’ll meet John who has been hiding a secret and learn about all kinds of birds as Quill endures abandonment and struggles to survive.

Geraldine writes for children and adults–she’s one prolific author! Read about her here and check out all her books here.

So Many Good Books, YA Novels

The Girl with the Louding Voice

Posted on March 11, 2021March 11, 2021 by Susan Uhlig

Labeled women’s fiction but with a fourteen-year-old character, I believe The Girl with the Louding Voice (Dutton, 2020) by Abi Daré will be a good read for teens, too. It’s such a moving story of hardship and perseverance. And a reminder of the importance of education that we so often take for granted.

In a small village in Nigeria, Adunni just wants to go to school like Papa promised her mother when she was dying. But her father needs money and sells her to an old man who already has two wives. Not only does she have to deal with being forced to have sex (not described graphically), but also with the resentment of one of the other wives. When Adunni is put in an even more terrible situation, she runs away. Only to be sold again–this time as a housemaid in an abusive rich lady’s home in far away Lagos. But Adunni is willing to risk working and speaking up for a chance at a better life no matter how hard things are.

I love the voice of the character–it’s clear from her words that English is a second language–but more than that Adunni’s determination and sense of right and wrong comes through. She is a so admirable. It’s satisfying to see her learning, too.

This great book became a New York Times Bestseller. I wish everyone would read it.

Amazingly, this is Abi Daré’s debut novel. You can read about her here.