Note: I received a digital galley through NetGalley. ( )

"It's me!" I said. "Me! I'm here and I matter!"

This was too young feeling for me. I liked the idea of the diary entries but there wasn't really anything amazing about this story. I also didn't care too much for Ava. I found her to be bratty at times. I'm sure she would be much more relatable to me if I was younger but not now. ( )

Ava and Pip is a diary format. Every word is from Ava Wren's diary. She is an energetic, talkative, extroverted 10 year old with a gift for language beyond her years. Her sister Pip is calm, quiet, and painfully shy. Ava takes it upon herself to help Pip get over he shyness.
In the course of events, Ava writes a story and submits it to a contest in which the villain of the story is Bea - a real girl at the girl's school. And Bea turns out to be a really nice girl, totally unlike the horrid girl Ava made her out to be in her story. Ava learns that when you write something bad down and let others see it, it is like ripples in a pond after tossing in a stone, and wrong thing she wrote has more repercussions than she ever would have imagined.
Ava is also dealing with her parents tendency to ignore her and pay extra attention to her sister. She loves her sister dearly, but is also very jealous of the attention she receives.
"Ava and Pip" is a delightful book with characters who are all completely lovable, in spite of their weaknesses (or sometimes because of their weaknesses.) There are a few worthwhile lessons to learn, which are presented clearly but not heavy-handedly. And it is also an entertaining love note to the English language - something very unusual in a young readers book. ( )

Ava is Pip’s younger sister and very outgoing, whereas Pip is extremely shy and quiet. It is the beginning of a new school year and Pip’s birthday is around the corner. She finds out that her friends cancel on her slumber party to attend a new girl’s boy-girl party and she is devastated. This gives Ava inspiration to write a story for a library competition. At first, Ava feels like she avenged her sister but later realizes that her story “Sting of the Queen Bee” is actually hurtful. With the help of an unlikely friend, Ava tries to fix her wrongdoing and help her sister come out of her shell.

This is a good story about relationships and the interactions of Ava, Pip, their family, and friends. This book helps you learn the importance of speaking up, finding your voice, and that your actions may have consequences. There is a lot of wordplay in this book; the characters are word enthusiasts and throughout the book, they create games that involved palindromes and homonyms. (The author included a list of palindromes at the end of the book.)

I would recommend this book to patrons in grades 4th – 7th. This book is in a diary entry format which makes it easy to read. –C.C. ( )

I really liked this book for several reasons. The main character, Ava, is vivacious and passionate. She really helps the writing become lively and engaging for readers. The language is playful, which helps when she is discussing so much exploration into language and it's various ways. The main idea of this book is to use writing to express yourself and to better understand the things you are going through in life.