| Name (First Name, Last Initial) |
| Ethan K |
| Age |
| 8 |
| Book Title |
| Ragweed & Poppy |
| Author(s) |
| Avi |
| Genre |
| Other Genre |
| If “Other Genre” selected, what genre was the book? |
| Animal Fiction |
| What is the setting of the book? |
| The book takes place around the countryside near the city of Amperville. There is a forest called Dimwood Forest (mentioned in the previous book in this series, “Ragweed“) where Ragweed gets off the train from Amperville and meets a friendly raccoon who needs help getting back to his mother.
There is also a log cabin that a family is renting, and a large meadow with a creek named Glitter Creek. Beyond that is an old, broken-down house called Gray House, next to an apple orchard. Poppy‘s family of mice — about 250! — live in Gray House. |
| Who is/are the main character(s)? What are they like? |
| Ragweed is a country mouse from nearby Dimwood Forest. He had previously gone to the city of Amperville and saved the mice there from cats. He is friendly towards other creatures, and helps when they ask him to.
Poppy, who lives in Gray House, sometimes has her head in the clouds. She daydreams until something bad happens, and then she snaps back into real life, which usually gets her into trouble. She likes dancing, but her father and mother don’t like it. Her parents are Lungwort and Sweet Cecily. |
| What is the conflict of the story? |
| While Poppy was daydreaming, she wandered into a trap and tripped on the switch to shut her in. They have to get Poppy out of the trap, and get out safely from the trouble that the humans are causing. Gray House was for sale, and the family who was renting the nearby cabin was thinking of buying it. |
| What was the conclusion of the book? |
| The little girl opened the cage, and Poppy hid. Then the humans opened the door, and Poppy ran out. Ragweed was trapped in the same trap: there was a sausage inside of it, and he thought that it was Poppy. Meanwhile, Lotar (a baby raccoon) was trapped in their car, and he couldn’t get out. The mother raccoon saw which way the car was going when they loaded Ragweed into it, and took a shortcut to find them. Poppy and some other mice were inside of a snakeskin, and that scared the mother raccoon into Gray House.
Some construction guys wanted to knock down Gray House, but the real estate agent said, “First we should see what our clients think of it.” The real estate agent tied his dog to the house pole. Lotar, meanwhile, heard Ragweed‘s voice, and called for his mother to help open the trap that Ragweed was in. Ragweed came out and ran into the house. Lotar dashed in the house, followed by the angry mother raccoon. Then the dog started chasing Lotar! Meanwhile, inside the house, the real estate agent was saying, “Yes, this house has many closets…” And he opened one, only for a flood of fifty mice to come out! He kept opening closets, and mice kept bursting out. At that point, the chase had come in the house. Lotar grabbed onto the little girl’s leg, and she started screaming. The mother raccoon leaped onto the dog’s back and attacked him, so the dog went around in circles. Ragweed climbed up on a hat to watch all of the chaos. The mother of the little girl yanked Lotar off and threw him across the room, and the family ran away.
In the end the mice in Gray House had a huge party, and Ragweed sang a mouse song. |
| While reading the book, what were your emotions? |
| I thought that it was very humorous when the mice came out of the closet, and I also liked the chase. I thought that it was also funny when the blue car drove away and the real estate agent said, “Doesn’t look like anyone’s gonna buy this house,” and the construction guys said, “Can we knock it down, please?” |
| Do you think the book had a moral? If so, what was it? |
| One big theme of the book was friendship; I think that because Ragweed made a lot of friends on the way, his journey was successful, because his friends helped him. What goes around comes around! |
| Star Rating |
| Selected Value: 10 (0 min / 10 max) |
| Why did you give the book this rating? |
| The book was very humorous, and I liked that. I also liked the idea to use the snakeskin to scare away creatures that would be harmful. I thought that, like the last book in the series, the illustrations were very pretty. I liked Lungwort (the leader of the mice and Poppy‘s father) and how he wore a thimble on his head like a crown. |
| What was your favorite/least favorite part? |
| You know what my favorite part is! I liked the last half of the book, where Lotar got trapped in the car, the chase happened, the mice burst out of the closets, the party at the end, etc. etc. The second half was very exciting, and I thought that there was more humor then. |
| Would you recommend this book to others? Why? |
| Yes! If you’ve already read Ragweed, you should definitely read this one. For people who love animals, humor, chaos, and chases, you should read Ragweed & Poppy. |
| How much action was in the book? |
| Selected Value: 10 (0 min / 10 max) |
| How much drama was in the book? |
| Selected Value: 7 (0 min / 10 max) |
| How much humor was in the book? |
| Selected Value: 10 (0 min / 10 max) |
| How much suspense was in the book? |
| Selected Value: 4 (0 min / 10 max) |
