Ava and Pip Series, Book 1

January 20, 2014
Family dynamics, friendship tangles, and finding one’s voice are among the topics Weston (the Melanie Martin novels) deftly juggles in this diary-style series debut. Fifth-grade narrator Ava begins by sharing her discovery that her “word nerd” family’s names are all palindromes: Mom is Anna, Dad is Bob, and her seventh-grader sister is Pip. Outgoing and candid, Ava resents that her parents dote on moody loner Pip: “I always end up feeling mad at her and bad for her at the same time.” After the girls invited to Pip’s birthday sleepover cancel to attend the girl-boy party thrown by Pip’s new classmate Bea, Ava enters a writing contest with a story about a thinly veiled “Queen Bee.” Rather than send the story in a mean-girl direction, Weston has Bea forgive Ava, and the two team up to help Pip overcome her shyness, helping deliver messages about prejudging others and being careful what one puts in print. Generous samplings of palindromes, similes, and a running emphasis on creative writing will excite readers who share Ava’s affinity for wordplay. Ages 10–up. Agent: Susan Ginsburg, Writers House.

February 1, 2014
Weston sums up her new diary-style middle-grade novel when lively 10-year-old Ava writes that she hopes someday to write a book about "a good kid who does a bad thing and sometimes feels invisible, but who helps her sister find her voice and ends up finding her own." Ava, a budding writer and class-A speller, is outgoing and chatty. Her sister, Pip, who turns 13 during the story, is so shy she's virtually silent. When Pip's birthday plans for a girls sleepover are derailed by new classmate Bea's boy-girl party, Ava pens a story maligning her as an entry in a library writing contest. Ava's "word nerd" family revels in language, particularly palindromes and homonyms. In fact, they pepper the narrative, so much so that their use at times undercuts the material's narrative flow. Besides delighting, Ava learns that words can influence feelings and reputation. After Bea recognizes herself in the story, Ava realizes her mistake and sincerely apologizes. In a refreshing plot twist, instead of staying mad, Bea teams up with Ava to aid Pip in coming out of her shell. Ava is a winning protagonist, a little too articulate for her age perhaps, but she and Pip grow psychologically in realistic and convincing ways. "Helping others helps you too" is Weston's essential message, and her story ably illustrates the point. (Fiction. 8-12)

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March 1, 2014

Gr 4-7-Ava is a spirited fifth grader and aspiring writer. Her sister Pip is a painfully shy seventh grader. Ava loves her sister, but gets frustrated with her awkwardness and the amount of parental attention she gets because of it ("I know Pip isn't shy on purpose, but it still gets me mad.") Pip's birthday party is derailed when a popular new girl, Bea, moves to town and hosts a party on the same night. Indignantly, Ava writes a story, "Sting of the Queen Bee." When her story is honored in a library contest, it goes public. Rather than start a mean-girl battle, Bea and Ava are honest with each other about their hurt feelings, and team up to help draw Pip out of her shell. They are so successful that Ava then has to adjust to the shift in family dynamics. The story is told through Ava's diary entries, which bear sign offs such as "Ava the annoying," "Ava, abandoned?," and "Ava amazed." Her writing is filled with palindromes and wordplay. Some of the musings may be more sophisticated than realistic for a fifth grader, but they they are so clever, and her voice is so charming that it's a pleasure to forgive. The relationships between all the girls are tender and realistic while the adults are caring and involved. The story has just enough conflict to keep the pages flying, with the comfortable certainty that it will all work out.-Amelia Jenkins, Juneau Public Library, AK

Copyright 2014 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

March 1, 2014
Grades 4-6 The author of The Diary of Melanie Martin (2001) is back with another diary-style novel about word-loving sisters. Ava and Pip are word nerds, and Ava uses her power with language to write a story for a library contest. However, the inspiration for her story, a girl who seemingly steals all of Pip's friends at her birthday party, gets her into trouble. Turns out that Ava's Aesop-like fable isn't fictional enough to be forgotten by Bea, the story's main character, or her family. While Ava was just trying to stand up for her shy sister, she ends up learning a big lesson about creative license. Readers will relate to Ava's situation, doing the wrong thing for the right reasons to protect her sister. But it is how she remedies the situation with Bea's help that will have readers cheering. Fans of diary-style novels will enjoy this story, and readers who love to play with words will be searching for more palindromes.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)

July 1, 2014
In a series of diary entries spanning four months, bright and bubbly Ava, youngest in a family of self-professed "word nerds," describes her efforts to help her painfully shy older sister develop a social life. In the process, she makes a new friend herself. Ava's journey toward a more mature awareness of her own feelings--and those of others--makes for infectious reading.

(Copyright 2014 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)