Ragweed & Poppy

Avi, 1937-

Book - 2020

The first new book about Poppy in more than ten years, from Newbery Medal-winning author Avi with illustrations throughout by Caldecott Medal-winning artist Brian Floca. How did Ragweed and Poppy meet and become friends? This book tells their hilarious story! Adventurous golden mouse Ragweed is on a freight train leaving the city of Amperville. On his journey he meets Lotar, a young, annoying, and lost raccoon who's desperate to reunite with his mother. Though Ragweed doesn't really want to help the raccoon, by doing so he winds up in Dimwood Forest. Ragweed is now ready to strike off on his own, but it's not long before he hears a cry for help. Following the sound of the voice, he finds a cage with a deer mouse trapped insid...e. When he asks the mouse's name, she replies, "Poppy." The way Ragweed comes to Poppy's aid, and how Poppy comes to his, is how their rousing and fateful friendship begins. As for that annoying raccoon, he keeps getting in the way. Fans of animal stories and especially of the beloved previous books in the Poppy series will love Ragweed and Poppy!

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jFICTION/Avi
0 / 1 copies available
Location Call Number   Status
Children's Room jFICTION/Avi Due Apr 3, 2024
Subjects
Genres
Animal fiction
Published
[New York, NY] : Harper, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers [2020]
Language
English
Main Author
Avi, 1937- (author)
Other Authors
Brian Floca (illustrator)
Edition
First edition
Physical Description
253 pages : illustrations ; 22 cm
ISBN
9780062671356
9780062671349
Contents unavailable.
Review by Booklist Review

Ragweed, a golden mouse, is riding the rails when Lotar, a frightened little raccoon, climbs into his boxcar. Tough-talking but soft-hearted, Ragweed helps reunite Lotar with his mother and then sets off happily on his own. Near a "human house," he hears a cry for help and finds Poppy, a deer mouse, caught in a metal box trap. After he leaves to seek help from her family, a girl finds Poppy and decides to keep her as a pet. In the story's climax, Ragweed, Poppy and her family, Lotar and his mother, the child and her parents, three men, and an excitable dog converge for an amusing, chaotic scene. Avi handles the large cast of familiar and new characters with ease, while pacing the narrative for maximum enjoyment. Floca's pencil drawings illustrate the story. In telling how Ragweed and Poppy become friends, this seventh volume in the Tales of Dimwood Forest series serves as a bridge between Ragweed (1999), a prequel, and Poppy (1995), the first-published book in the series. A must-read choice for Poppy fans.

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Kirkus Book Review

Avi returns to Dimwood Forest, filling a gap in the series with the story of how Poppy the deer mouse met her flamboyant friend. Picking up where Ragweed (1999), chronologically the first book in the series, left off, the footloose golden mouse with the single earring again finds himself on a train--though not for long, as Lotar, a large but very young and "double-down dumb" raccoon, climbs into the boxcar and is separated from his mother when it begins moving. After squiring Lotar back to his mom, Ragweed finds himself on a second rescue mission after meeting Poppy, who has obliviously danced herself into a live-catch trap. In a stretched-out sequence of entrances and exits, Poppy manages to free herself, but Ragweed is snared, ultimately leading to a climactic mad scramble involving a family of humans, an eager dog, two raccoons, and hundreds of Poppy's sibs and relatives. Party time! As night falls, the two main mice slip away to dance in the moonlight…setting up Ragweed's first and last appearance in the rather naturalistic scene that opens Poppy (1995), the first-published book in the series. As favors to series fans Avi slips in a few cameos (notably by vituperative porcupine Ereth and local contractors of the Derrida Deconstruction Company) and a musical arrangement for Ragweed's theme song, "A Mouse Will A-Roving Go." Floca supplies spot and full-page illustrations (not seen in finished form) featuring, mostly, mouse-level views of events. A characteristically droll lagniappe for a durable and popular series. (Fantasy. 10-12) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.