Our guest today is Carolina Ugaz-Morán an award-winning author of a seven-middle-grade book series. Her
first book, Aline and the Blue Bottle has won the 2020 NYC Big Book Award under Juvenile Fiction and received the 2020 Independent Press Award Distinguished Favorites under Children’s Fiction and 2019/2020 Reader Views Literary Award Honorable Mention under Children’s Teens (Ages 12-16). Carolina builds unique and fascinating universes by drawing on ancient Incan mythology and languages. Her work contains linguistic guides, glossaries, and Tolkien-esque maps to help readers feel like they are a part of Aline’s journey. She combines elements of traditional fantasy with strong female characters and a backdrop uniquely her own. Her work includes magical secrets that readers will delight in finding. Like the best fantasy, an unfamiliar vocabulary adds to the richness while also underscoring the importance of language. In addition to her world-building prowess, Ugaz-Morán gives her books deeper significance by rooting parts of the book in real-life history and Latin American culture.