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Summary
Summary
Poppy the deer mouse urges her family to move next to a field of corn big enough to feed them all forever, but Mr. Ocax, a terrifying owl, has other ideas.
Reviews (5)
School Library Journal Review
Gr 3-5A fast-paced, allegorical animal story. Mr. Ocax is a great horned owl who rules the mice who live around Dimwood Forest, preying on their fears by promising protection from the dreaded porcupine in exchange for unconditional obedience. Challenging his despotic authority is the smart-talking, earring-sporting golden mouse Ragweed, whose refusal to obey turns him into a meal for the owl. His timid sweetheart Poppy returns home, where she learns that a delegation must go to request permission from Mr. Ocax to relocate half of the mouse family as they have outgrown their present quarters. When he refuses, Poppy, inspired by Ragweed's independent thinking, decides to undertake the scouting journey to the proposed new home anyway, encountering along the way an irreverent porcupine who explains that he and his ilk are no threat to mice. Armed with Ragweed's earring, a quill sword, and the awareness of the owl's deception, she plans to expose Ocax as a cowardly bully. She finds herself in a fierce battle with him, resulting in his death and allowing for the mice's liberation. This exciting story is richly visual, subtly humorous, and skillfully laden with natural-history lessons. The anthropomorphism is believable and the characters are memorable. The underlying messages, to challenge unjust authority and to rely on logic and belief in oneself, are palatably blended with action and suspense. Black-and-white illustrations are in keeping with the changing moods and forest locale. A thoroughly enjoyable book.Marie Orlando, Suffolk Cooperative Library System, Bellport, NY (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
Newbery Honor author Avi (Tom, Babette and Simon, reviewed June 12) turns out another winner with this fanciful tale featuring a cast of woodland creatures. As ruler of Dimwood Forest, Ocax the hoot owl has promised to protect the mice occupying an abandoned farmhouse as long as they ask permission before ``moving about.'' Poppy, a timid dormouse, is a loyal, obedient subject-until she sees Ocax devour her fiancé and hears the owl deny her father's request to seek new living quarters. To prove that the intimidating ruler is really a phony, Poppy embarks on a dangerous and eye-opening quest, which ends with her one-on-one battle with Ocax. While the themes about tyranny and heroism are timeless, Avi leavens his treatment with such 20th-century touches as Poppy's jive-talking boyfriend and Poppy's own romantic vision of herself as Ginger Rogers. An engaging blend of romance, suspense and parody, this fantasy is well-nigh irresistible. Illustrations not seen by PW. Ages 9-11. (Oct.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Horn Book Review
Illustrated by Brian Floca. This story of bravery, persistence, and an overthrown tyrant features the heroine Poppy, a small deer mouse with beautiful orange-brown fur, dark round eyes, and pink toes. She and her family live under the protection of Mr. Ocax, a great horned owl. The mice cannot leave their territory without the permission of Mr. Ocax, at the risk of being eaten as punishment; in return, he promises to protect them from other dangers, especially porcupines. Poppy's friend Ragweed is an iconoclast; he asks inconvenient questions, such as whether any of the mice has ever actually seen a porcupine. One night, he persuades Poppy to go out in the moonlight without asking Mr. Ocax's permission. Although Ragweed is an original thinker, he is not a careful mouse, and Mr. Ocax catches him and eats him. The horrified Poppy barely escapes with her life. When she makes it back home, she finds her bombastic father, Lungwort, delivering a speech to the assembled mice about moving to a new home - aptly called New House - where there is more food. He insists that Poppy accompany him on a mission to seek Mr. Ocax's permission, and when Mr. Ocax refuses, the mice blame Poppy. Terrified but resolute, Poppy travels to see New House for herself and enters Dimwood, where Mr. Ocax and many other horrors reside. There she blunders into a porcupine's den, only to find him grumpy and smelly with a great talent for rough language such as "slug slop" and "bat bilge," but a decided vegetarian. This revelation confirms her growing suspicion about the benevolence of Mr. Ocax's rule. Poppy taunts Ocax and finally defeats him with a porcupine quill in a battle of epic dimensions. The wonderful characterizations - Poppy and her slowly growing awareness, the evil Mr. Ocax, the pompous Lungwort, and Ragweed the rebel - will remind readers of Robert Lawson's Rabbit Hill (Viking) and Robert C. O'Brien's Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH (Atheneum). A splendid read-aloud, and a tribute to the inquiring mind and the stout heart. a.a.f LucyÿJane Bledsoe The Big Bike Race Illustrated by Sterling Brown. Ernest Peterson's tenth birthday is a turning point, as well as a time of disappointment, in this easy-to-read first novel. Instead of the racing bike of his dreams, Ernie receives a secondhand clunker. The short, focused chapters follow Ernie through a chance encounter with an adult bike racer that leads to a special friendship. In spite of ridicule from his pesky sister Melissa and the neighborhood kids, Ernie trains for a race on his clumsy bike. A nice twist veers events away from a predictable outcome to a more complex and satisfying conclusion. Bledsoe provides an empathetic view of a nontraditional family. Ernie and Melissa are being raised by their grandmother since the death of their parents in an automobile accident. Ernie is sometimes embarrassed by his practical grandmother, but he respects her and tries not to hurt her feelings. Bledsoe's likable characters and enjoyable story offer a good choice for reading aloud or independently. m.a.b. Charles Dickens A Christmas Carol Illustrated by Quentin Blake. From the jolly red dust jacket to the double borders surrounding the text, everything is handsome about this edition of Dickens's Christmas Carol, but handsomest and jolliest of all are the illustrations by Quentin Blake. It would be hard to think of a more quintessentially Dickensian illustrator. Blake's portly businessmen are somehow more portly; his jovial old Fezziwig dancing with vast Mrs. Fezziwig, more jovial; his dank, shadowy, awe-inspiring ghost of Christmas yet to come, more spectral. A magnificent example is the illustration of the ghost of Christmas present adorned in a holly wreath and green robe, with good things to eat in vast amounts spread about his feet, exuberantly waving his cornucopia of light - a foil to the wizened, gray, despairing figure of Scrooge. Blake expresses his appreciation of Dickens's wide appeal in a brief foreword. The text, of course, remains as vibrant and captivating as ever, and the message as apropos. A splendid alliance of artist and author. a.a.f. LindaÿOatman High Hound Heaven Silver Nickles has lived with her grandfather since her parents and baby sister were killed in a car accident. A spunky, resourceful child, she longs for a dog to fill the void left by her family's death, but her grandfather refuses to buy her one. Silver, bold enough to paint her grandfather's toenails with polish when he is asleep, nags Papaw regularly and creates a "Dream Dog" display of photographs on her ceiling to remind her of her goal. She even prays for a dog: "Now I lay me down to sleep, I'd really love a dog a heap. And if You send it by July, I'll bake you, Lord, a rhubarb pie." Silver takes a job working for a local breeder and hopes to save the money to buy a dog herself, but her plans suffer a setback when Papaw has a heart attack. At the hospital, Papaw falls in love and realizes why he has been so set against Silver's getting a dog: he remembers all too well his own daughter's heartache when her beloved dog died. But the combination of his heart attack and his newfound love reminds Papaw that it is "better to love and lose than never to love at all," and so he consents to Silver's wish to get a dog. Through a combination of faith, hard work, and luck, Silver meets her goal and adopts a greyhound. Silver, a very appealing heroine, has help throughout the book from her wonderful and funny friends Rose and Dudley, nicknamed "the Dud." As with Maizie (Holiday), High tells the story in a rural mountain dialect and includes plenty of details to make the characters and setting come to life. m.v.k. H Hilary McKay Dog Friday Ten-year-old Robin Brogan lives with his widowed mother in the old family residence, named Porridge Hall, on the coast of Yorkshire. Mrs. Brogan is trying to eke out a small income by running a bed and breakfast, with mediocre success. Robin is a calm, pleasant child - except for his inordinate fear of dogs. The book opens with his recovery from an unpleasant experience with a dog that resulted in a hospital stay and numerous stitches. (His whole class is lost in admiration over his twenty-four bright blue stitches, and he becomes a reluctant hero.) Soon after his accident, the Robinsons, a family with four children, move in next door. The two oldest are a pair of insouciant twins named Perry and Ant - for Peregrine and Antoinette; the next is Beany, so-called because she once wished she were a broad bean; and the youngest is Sun Dance, a child so unusual that the term individualist does not begin to do him justice. He worries about "ancient laws if nobody takes any notice of them and what to do about tramps with no food." The effect of these four irrepressible children on Robin and his mother's life is extraordinary. They help him find an abandoned, starved dog on the beach whom he instantly loves; they make a skeleton called Pork Chop Man out of a cache of buried bones and then display him on the bed-and-breakfast sign as an inducement to custom, but with opposite results; when Robin's mother takes Perry and Ant to the hospital for stitches after a typical Robinson mishap, Robin and Beany and Sun Dance welcome a couple to the bed-and-breakfast and prepare dinner for them in one of the funniest scenes ever written in a children's book. The subtlety of the character portrayal, the ingenious use of episodes of everyday life, the appeal of the little lost dog, and those Robinson children make a book that begs to be read aloud. The Blossoms, the Herdmans, and the Bagthorpes have found their match. a.a.f. Anna Myers Graveyard Girl g Eli Mahoney's mother and sister have died in the 1878 Memphis yellow fever epidemic. His father, senseless with grief, escapes the depressing scene around him by sneaking onto a train and abandoning his twelve-year-old son. When Eli arranges for his sister's burial at Elmwood Cemetery, he is befriended by Grace, Elmwood's "graveyard girl," who tolls the bell for those who have died. Eli tries to harden his heart against developing feelings for anyone, but Grace coerces him into watching over a newly orphaned young girl to whom he becomes emotionally connected. By the time Grace dies from yellow fever, Eli discovers that it is only by caring for others that he is able to work through his overwhelming grief and deal with his traumatic situation. Graveyard Girl's taut style recalls the author's first book, Red-Dirt Jessie (Walker). Historical fiction buffs will appreciate the close attention Myers pays to details, albeit horrific, about a period that is rarely described for children. Those looking for a highly involving story will be rewarded by this sad but ultimately hopeful book. ellen fader Ida Vos Dancing on the Bridge at Avignon Translated by Terese Edelstein and Inez Smidt. Ten-year-old Rosa, her younger sister Sylvie, her parents, relatives, and friends are Jews in the Netherlands waiting through the days and months of 1941 and 1942 to see whether they will be arrested and sent to the concentration camp at Westerbork and then on to Poland. Every day more people disappear, and activities for Jews are further restricted by punishing edicts. Rosa, a talented musician, becomes too fearful to leave the house, taking refuge in her father's big chair, where she sucks her thumb and slips into dreams. Alarmed for her, her mother urges her to play her violin, and her father gathers some other children and a Jewish teacher to form a little school at a neighbor's house. Despite frayed nerves and frequent tears, the family struggles with attempts at normalcy. Then, one day, Uncle Sander comes to tell the family a strange story about having saved a German general from drowning. In exchange for his brave act, the general will get him papers giving ten people in his family safe passage to Avignon in the south of France. The family makes joyous preparations for their escape; but the next morning they are taken into custody by German soldiers in a round-up to fill their daily quota of Jews. At the end of the book, in the terrible accounting of the human costs of the Holocaust, we learn that only Rosa and Sander survived. The author has used her own wartime experiences in writing this story, which gives moving insights into the daily existence of people who tried to live under German occupation during World War II. h.b.z. Tim Wynne-Jones The Book of Changes In one of the seven short stories that make up this collection, the author reintroduces a character who appeared in his earlier volume, Some of the Kinder Planets (Orchard). Tobias is once again having trouble completing a school assignment - this one's on China - until he borrows Peach's copy of the I Ching, the ancient Chinese book of prophecy, and Peach alludes to its power to bring chance into his "dull and dreary life." After a long night poring over the book's enigmatic oracles while being aided by a mystical and comical Chinese warlord who seems to have stepped down from the moon, Tobias's creative instincts flow in unexpected ways. In "The Hard Sell," Clarke, who feels timid about going door-to-door selling magazines, nevertheless finds the courage to confront a gang of older boys who have stolen a little girl's bike. Bullies are also the subject of the first and perhaps the strongest story in the collection, "The Clark Beans Man." Two smart but small boys who vie with each other to see who can learn the most lines of poetry join forces to triumph over the school bully. In the final story, the narrator receives a very special gift. Having fallen asleep while he was supposed to be studying for a science test, he awakens the next morning to a March snowstorm that will close school for the day. At the core of all these stories are surprises as delightful as the unexpected vacation from school. After Barnsey has digested the shock of his parents' separation in the story "Dawn," he listens to a tape called "Rain Forest with Temple Bells" given to him by someone he met on the bus and suddenly understands where the music comes from. "You had to supply your own. Make it out of what was there. . . . They were all part of the music." Wynne-Jones tells his readers in these perceptive short stories that we all have the power to create the music of our own lives. n.v. From HORN BOOK, (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
An adolescent mouse named Poppy is off on a romantic tryst with her rebel boyfriend when they are attacked by Mr. Ocax, the owl who rules over the area. He kills the boyfriend, but Poppy escapes and Mr. Ocax vows to catch her. Mr. Ocax has convinced all the mice that he is their protector when, in fact, he preys on them mercilessly. When the mice ask his permission to move to a new house, he refuses, blaming Poppy for his decision. Poppy suspects that there is another reason Mr. Ocax doesn't want them to move and investigates to clear her name. With the help of a prickly old porcupine and her quick wits, Poppy defeats her nemesis and her own fears, saving her family in the bargain. The book is a cute, but rather standard offering from Avi (Tom, Babette, and Simon, p. 776, etc.). (b&w illustrations, not seen) (Fiction. 9-11)
Booklist Review
Gr. 4-6. A good old-fashioned story with an exciting plot, well-drawn characters, and a satisfying ending, Avi's latest novel will please readers on many levels. Mr. Ocax the owl rules the territory where Poppy, a young deer mouse, lives with her large, extended family. The mice have agreed to obey Mr. Ocax, and, in exchange, he has promised to protect them from porcupines, animals that the mice know only from the owl's alarming description. Although warned by her officious father not to leave home without the owl's permission, Poppy sneaks out one night with her boyfriend, Ragweed. Poppy listens to Ragweed's goading about her fearful submissiveness, then watches in horror as Mr. Ocax pounces on Ragweed, killing him instantly. Poppy soon finds her own way from cowardice to courage when she sets out on a quest to find her family a new home. As an adventure story, the book combines action, suspense, and humor. As a novel of character, it convincingly portrays growth as Poppy faces her fears and finds her way. Older children may recognize the politics of power played out through the three figures who initially dominate Poppy: Mr. Ocax, who cleverly coaxes, rules by fear, and despises those he oppresses; Poppy's father, who threatens dire consequences because he is fearful but has little substance behind his bluster; and Ragweed, who puts down Poppy for her cautious ways, choosing to deny fear entirely and consequently dying in chapter 1. An excellent choice for reading alone or reading aloud. (Reviewed Oct. 15. 1995)0531094839Carolyn Phelan