This is our third experience with this the Taylor-Made Tales series and I must say, we are quite pleased with what we read here. In The Cowgirl’s Luck, we are getting to know both Mr. Taylor (a new teacher for the students) and his class a little better. This tale focuses specifically on Molly, she is chosen as the student who gets to choose the five special items for the tale that Mr. Taylor will weave from them. The entire premise of Taylor-Made Tales is that this new teacher allows one student at a time to pick five items and he then tells a story that must include those five items and the story progresses interweaving the normal life and classroom activities of the student (focusing mainly on Molly this time out) with the special story that he is creating from Molly’s chosen items.

Molly chooses a magic pot, a star, a heads-up penny, a pair of golden scissors and a pony and she even has the type of story that she THINKS Mr. Taylor will tell with those items (think fairy tale). She is somewhat distressed when Mr. Taylor begins to weave an excellent tale about Jessie and it’s a classic old western cowboy yarn…not what she was expecting at all, but she puts her faith in Mr. Taylor to tell a great story.

I really enjoy how each story is divided between the Taylor-Made part and the "classroom" or real time events that include Molly and the rest of the class. The story takes a week time to tell and the students must work to earn more bits of story time, so it's both a creative process and a motivating one, something that keeps the students excited about learning. There is a certain excitement for young readers to watch for the items selected and see how and when they come into play in the story. One of the interesting things about the creation of the Taylor-Made tale is that the author manages to weave together Jessie’s adventure and a sort of (perhaps intentional) message for Molly (who we find out is incredibly shy but very talented in basketball which she refuses to tell her classmates about because she is so shy).

Overall I give The Cowgirl’s five stars. It would make a fine read aloud...but I think its strength is in young readers who have made (or are just making) the transition from picture books to chapter books. There are a few illustrations to help the story along and it's slightly more complex than most beginner chapter books in that the reader has to work out the division of "real time" story (about Molly, the class and Mr. Taylor) and the story...the text makes the division clear (bolder text for the Taylor-Made parts), but for readers who have not experienced such a division in their reading, it makes for an interesting reading experience. The story overall is entertaining and well done, it’s not heavy handed in the message that Mr. Taylor creates. I'd recommend it heartily for readers ages 5-8 as a read aloud and ages 8-10 as a read alone book and highly recommend it for beginning chapter book readers. ( )