Ava and Taco Cat

Carol Weston

Average Rating 9/10 (1 Review)

The second installment in Carol Weston's lauded Ava series. Ava Wren desperately wants a cat for her 11th birthday - but gets way more than she bargained for when she adopts a rescue cat.

When Ava Wren hears about an injured yellow tabby with mismatched ears, she becomes obsessed and wants to rescue him. She even picks out a perfect palindromic name: T-A-C-O-C-A-T. But when Taco joins the family, he doesn't snuggle or purr - all he does is hide. Worse, Ava's best friend starts hanging out with Zara, a new girl in fifth grade. Ava feels alone and writes an acclaimed story, The Cat Who Wouldn't Purr. What begins as exciting news turns into a disaster. How can Ava make things right? And what about sweet, scared little Taco?

The New York Times called Ava and Pip "a love letter to language." With this third diary format, Girls' Life advice columnist Carol Weston hits another home run.

Age Range: 10 - 12 years

Review by Molly Martin (010520) Rating (9/10)

Review by Molly Martin
Book Source: Not Known
Rating 9/10
Carol Weston’s Ava and Taco Cat is the second in the Ava Series.

Over again we find our dauntless Ava Wren forwarding her exemplary middle grade kid voice and philosophy to a group of incidents oftentimes existing with members this 9 - 12 age group.

Ava is once more opening a brand new diary. She will be penning ideas, daily occurrences, anticipation and ruefulness on the pages of her journal.

One evening, as the family is eating dinner Ava is anxious upon learning that a man brought a young cat he had noticed shivering, injured and sitting solitary in a tree. Ava’s Mom, Eve, works for veterinarian Dr. Gross.

Ava’s wonder regarding the cat and his status develops and increases until she is convinced she cannot live unless she can bring the cat home. Problem, Mom is not really a pet in the home type individual.

When Mom does soften and Taco, he is the colour of Tacos, becomes a member of the family; Ava and her conversation, thoughts and narrative writings are all occupied with tales pertaining to Taco.

Presently information regarding Taco is dispersed far beyond the town where Ava lives, with a foreseeable result. Before long a lady toting a cat carrier arrives at the Wren home.

Will Taco be taken away, or has he found his forever home?

Author Weston writes with the perceptiveness derived from having raised middle grade age youngsters in her home, the witticism that permitted her to move through that period with joyfulness and the savvy for what it takes for a narration to charm the middle grade student.

Present in this volume are several of the participants The Reader met earlier on the pages of Ava and Pip. Pip is now in seventh grade, no longer so shy as she was AND she has a boyfriend! He is eighth grader Ben, whose family own the local Book Store, and, is brother to Bea who became friends with both Pip and Ava in the first book.

Ava is now a fifth grader and is just recognizing that some long time relationships continue and grow beyond the ‘little kid’ phase and into middle grade and perchance even beyond, and, some may not. Moreover, much as families do as they add children family members; it is possible for friendly relationships to develop and elements to the unit can endure without losing the nucleus friendships.

Once more emblematic disquieting relationships, immature impulsiveness and natural middle grade anxiety work together to create a spirited narrative under Weston’s adept utilization of linguistic material. Palindromes abound, words such as feral and neutered and abbreviations, UTI is one, are presented to furnish approach for linguistic communication building and student discussion later after reading.

I relished reading Ava and Taco Cat very much. The tale is a cracking good follow-up to Ava and Pip; were I teaching middle grades today I would take both books to use for teacher reading aloud to class during the half hour following lunch. During my two years spent as teacher in fourth grade classrooms, I found middle grade students savour being read to aloud as much as do primary age students. Spirited give-and-take were stimulated during the reading periods I did with my students.

Basic cognitive process regarding taking part in give-and-take communication, sharing opinions, taking turns, realization and acceptance that others may have some other point of view antithetical than our own; are all part of the language acquirements honed during middle grades.

The Middle Grade students I taught were spirited, led by curiosity regarding words; where they have originated and how they are used. Adult sounding words exchanged for the little kid words utilized for mundane chatter is an essential component of the expression used by this age group. Writer Weston taps into this sensitivity and emotions with sprightliness.

Every student I have taught, whether 6 or 12, have been captivated with palindromes. I like them too, and enjoy them very much as used in Weston’s Ava series.

All in all, I find, Ava and Taco Cat to be a spot on contribution for the 9 – 12 set, Happy to recommend for sharing with middlers, for the classroom book collection, the public and school library shelves as well as for a beginning of the new school term gift for students to give to their self-contained classroom or English teacher.

Kid pleasing Read… Recommended.
Molly Martin (1st May 2020)