Ragweed and Poppy

by Avi, Brian Floca (Illustrator)

Overview

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.

Ragweed and Poppy is one of the "10 Top Middle-Grade Summer Reads," according to Kirkus Reviews!

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 and bothersome raccoon who has lost 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 inside. When he asks the mouse’s name, she replies, “Poppy.”

The story of 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 tales and especially of the beloved previous books in the Poppy series will love Ragweed and Poppy!

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780062671363
Publisher:	HarperCollins Publishers
Publication date:	05/11/2021
Series:	Poppy , #2
Pages:	288
Sales rank:	156,164
Product dimensions:	5.12(w) x 7.62(h) x (d)
Age Range:	8 - 12 Years

About the Author

Avi is the award-winning author of more than eighty-two books for young readers, ranging from animal fantasy to gripping historical fiction, picture books to young adult novels. Crispin: The Cross of Lead won the Newbery Medal, and The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle and Nothing But the Truth were awarded Newbery Honors. He is also the author of the popular Poppy series. Avi lives in Denver, Colorado. Visit him online at www.avi-writer.com.

Brian Floca, in addition to being the illustrator of the books in Avi's Poppy Stories series, is the author and illustrator of the acclaimed picture books Locomotive, winner of the Caldecott Medal; Moonshot: The Flight of Apollo 11; Lightship; The Racecar Alphabet; and Five Trucks. You can visit him online at www.brianfloca.com.

Date of Birth:

December 23, 1937

Place of Birth:

New York, New York

Education:

University of Wisconsin; M.A. in Library Science from Columbia University, 1964

Website:

http://www.avi-writer.com

Editorial Reviews

"A must-read choice for Poppy fans." %COMM_CONTRIB%Booklist

"A must-read choice for Poppy fans."

Booklist

"This return to Dimwood Forest is an immensely satisfying one."

Vicky Smith

"A must-read choice for Poppy fans."

Booklist

2020-02-09
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)

Kirkus Reviews

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