Poppy and Rye by Avi, Brian Floca (Illustrator)

From the Publisher

Poppy, the bold, charming deer mouse introduced in Avi's popular and highly acclaimed book by the same name, won the hearts of young readers, parents, and educators alike. Now the beloved mouse returns in a daring new adventure.

Poppy and Rye

Heartbroken over the loss of her beloved fiance, Ragweed, Poppy is making the long journey west to bring the sad news to his family, whom she's never met. There is no way Poppy can know that Ragweed's brother Rye is traveling east on his own quest for answers....

Coming across a beautiful green meadow in the forest, Poppy closes her eyes and begins to dance. Suddenly, she opens her eyes and, for one indescribable moment, thinks she sees Ragweed standing before her. Without a word, the strange new mouse takes her paws and the two dance in a graceful, magical duet. And then he is gone.

Has it all been a dream? Or has something truly extraordinary occurred? Poppy isn't sure. But when she finally reaches Ragweed's family, she discovers great trouble. Beavers are constructing a giant dam and flooding the home of the mouse family. The mice have turned for help to Rye, who has always lived in the shadow of his older brother. Now, Rye longs to prove himself to his family...and to the beautiful deer mouse who captured his heart in the meadow.

Before the battle is over, Poppy and Rye are drawn together in a dangerous showdown with the cruel and relentless dam builders. Braving kidnap, imprisonment, and a daring rescue, they carry out a brilliant plan, and with Poppy by his side, Rye dares rise to meet the expectations of his family and the mouse he loves.

Publishers Weekly

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 fianc 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.)

Publishers Weekly

The spirited mouse star from Poppy must now face life after Ragweed (her fianc who was killed by an owl). Poppy and her curmudgeonly porcupine friend Ereth leave Dimwood Forest in search of Ragweed's parents to tell them the sad news so that Poppy can "get on with her life." When they finally reach their destination, they discover it's hardly the "dullsville" that Ragweed had described. In fact, his family has been forced to leave their comfortable nest and move to higher ground: a clan of development-mad beavers are flooding out the residents in their efforts to turn the pastoral backwater into "Canad's Cute Condos." Along the way, Poppy encounters Ragweed's dreamy, poetic brother Rye, and before long the two mice are head over paws in love. When a showdown between the scheming beavers and the reluctantly heroic mice puts Rye in danger, Poppy risks everything to save him. Of course, all's well that ends well in this rollicking tale, which Avi infuses with generous helpings of adventure, romance and humor. He juggles multiple story lines effortlessly, and his characterizations are particularly engaging, from the blustering Caster P. Canad ("Bless my teeth and smooth my tail!"), head of the beaver coterie, to the smart-mouthed Ereth ("Look here, you pickle-tailed fur booger"). This thoroughly enjoyable sequel is sure to please old fans and will likely win some new ones. Ages 8-12. (June)

Children's Literature

A tale of mice and beavers, this one is a winner because the characters are so sympathetically portrayed. The second in a series finds Poppy, a golden mouse, on a journey to inform her former fiancé's family of his death. Poppy had been very much in love with Ragweed, and feels very strongly about communicating with his family. But the trip will be long and dangerous, and she wants company. She manages to talk her friend Ereth, a porcupine, into accompanying her. Ereth has a rather acerbic personality, and agrees to go only reluctantly. Guided by the little she knows of the location of Ragweed's family, Poppy eventually stumbles onto a familiar face and it's full steam ahead with adventure and romance. The beavers have invaded the brook, and Poppy will be involved in not only helping the grieving mouse family deal with their loss, but also with securing their future. This story makes great reading aloud.

VOYA

Fans of Avi's Poppy (Orchard, 1995/VOYA June 1996) will find this sequel an entertaining read. As readers of the first story will remember, Poppy was determined to find the family of her deceased fiancé Ragweed and let them know of his death. Poppy and Rye details Poppy's journey to the home of Ragweed's parents with her irascible porcupine friend Ereth. Avi delivers a romantic adventure to his audience when Poppy finds herself falling in love with Ragweed's younger brother Rye while at the same time helping his family survive the encroachment of a band of industrious beavers. The beavers are led by Caster P. Canad, who tosses mottoes and slogans around in the same manner that Ereth spews his opinions. Canad's "progress without pain" campaign to dam The Brook where the golden mice live leaves Rye's family fighting to survive as their home and resources are flooded. Poppy and Rye use their wits and bravely defend the rights of the golden mice to maintain their home against the more powerful beaver population. The fast-paced and dramatic fight for survival against the beavers provides a climax young readers will enjoy. Fans of Ereth's alliterative mutterings will not be disappointed either as Avi, once again, has the porcupine spouting some hilarious expressions. Readers waiting for the answers as to how Poppy and Rye met will be satisfied here. VOYA Codes: 4Q 4P M (Better than most, marred only by occasional lapses, Broad general YA appeal, Middle School-defined as grades 6 to 8).

School Library Journal

Gr 3-6This novel tells the story, as promised in the final pages of Poppy (Orchard, 1995), of how the courageous deer mouse met and married her husband Rye. Picking up Poppy's story after her victory over Mr. Ocax the owl, Avi chronicles her quest to find her late fianc's family and tell them of his death in Mr. Ocax's claws. The couple meet early in her journey, but their growing love is temporarily thwarted by Rye's imprisonment within the lodge of clich-spouting, indefatigably eager beavers. He is also hindered by his fears that he can't live up to Poppy's memories of Ragweed, who was Rye's sometimes admired, sometimes despised older brother. Unfortunately, the mouse's conflicting feelings about his brother are never clearly resolved, and Rye remains a less-developed character than Poppy, whose growth from timid to brave is one of the previous book's chief delights. Poppy and Rye also loses steam during a distracting subplot featuring Ereth the porcupine's cranky (and unrequited) love for Poppy, but it will still appeal to fans of the first book.Beth Wright, Edythe Dyer Community Library, Hampden, ME

Horn Book Magazine

In Poppy (rev. 1/96), the eponymous mouse heroine lost her first love, Ragweed, and now she is journeying to tell his family of his unfortunate fate. Accompanying Poppy on her expedition is Ereth the porcupine-grumpy, smelly, foul-mouthed, and hostile to change, but a good friend under duress. Poppy meets a charming golden mouse who looks like Ragweed, and who in fact is later revealed to be his younger brother, Rye. When Poppy finds Ragweed's family, they are in the midst of a crisis: beavers have flooded their brook, forcing them to move, and even their new home is under threat. The beavers are led by Mr. Caster B. Canad, a sly takeoff on the slick-talking, amoral businessman, the master of clich, who promises everything but gives nothing ("a stranger is just a friend you haven't met. And I mean that, sincerely"). After Rye is captured by the beavers and trapped inside their lodge, Poppy leads an expedition to save him, and his family, galvanized by Poppy's bravery, plans to destroy the dam. The final desperate and one-sided battle of mice vs. beavers is decided by the sudden appearance of Ereth, whose quills even the beavers fear. The happy ending has a slight undertone of sadness, as Ereth, a misanthropist to the core, realizes that he loves Poppy, a thought so distasteful that he complains bitterly, "Love... Nothing but slug splat stew and toad jam. Phooey." The anthropomor-phic characterization is spot-on: Ereth; Rye, chafing in the shadow of his older brother; Valerian, Rye's father, who will remind some readers of Father in Robert Lawson's Rabbit Hill. Accompanied once again by Brian Floca's witty yet pastoral pencil drawings, this is a sequel worthy of its predecessor.

Kirkus Reviews

Still grieving over the loss of her beau Ragweed of Poppy (1995), the intrepid deer mouse decides to bring the sad news to his family in this uneven, heavy-handed sequel. Setting out from Dimwood Forest with her hopelessly infatuated porcupine friend, Ereth, Poppy arrives just in time to help Ragweed's parents and numerous siblings avert eviction. Led by ruthless Caster P. Canad, a crew of beavers has dammed up the nearby brook in preparation for a housing project. The mice have already been flooded out of one home, and their new one is about to be threatened. Saddened—but also secretly relieved to be out from under his brother's shadow—dreamy Rye dashes out to see what he can do against the beavers, and is quickly captured. Having fallen in love with him at first sight, Poppy organizes a rescue, urging the meek mice to fight back; they do. The bad guys silently depart, and Poppy and Rye set a date. Avi develops his characters to a level of complexity that provides a distracting contrast with the simplistic story, an obvious take on human land-use disputes, and easily distinguishable victims and villains. In language more ugly than colorful, Ereth chews over his feelings for Poppy in several plot-stopping passages, and is last seen accompanying the happy couple back to Dimwood. Readers may wonder who to root for in this disappointing follow-up to one of the best animal stories in years. (b&w illustrations) (Fiction. 10-12)

Product Details

• Table of Contents
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Table of Contents

Read an Excerpt

Poppy and Rye

Chapter One

Clover and Valerian

Clover! Clover, love. You need to wake up! Something awful is happening."

Clover, a golden mouse, was small, round and fast asleep in a snug comer of her underground nest. Too sleepy to make sense of the words being spoken to her, she opened her silky black eyes, looked up, and gasped.

Was that Ragweed leaning over her? Ragweed was a particular favorite of her sixty-three children. He had gone east in search of adventures but had not been heard of for four months. Clover missed him terribly, and kept wishing he'd come back.

Her eyes focused. She could see more clearly now. "Valerian," she asked, "is that you?"

Valerian was Clover's husband. He was a long-faced, lanky, middle-aged golden mouse with shabby fur of orange hue and scruffy whiskers edged with gray. His face bore the fixed expression of being perpetually overwhelmed without knowing quite what to do about it. At the moment his tail was whipping about in great agitation.

"Is something the matter with the children?" Clover asked. She had recently given birth to a new litter — her fourth that year — and was so tired, she hadn't ventured from the nest in more than a week.

"They're fine," Valerian assured her. "But Clover, you've got to see what I've discovered. You've not going to believe it."

"Can't you just tell me what it is?" Clover replied with a yawn. She never got enough steep.

"Clover," Valerian whispered, "we're...we're in great danger."

A startled Clover looked about the nest where she and Valerian and all their children had made their home for six happy years. A small,deep and comfortable nest consisting of three chambers, each of its rooms was lined with milkweed fluff. There were a family room, a master bedroom, and the children's nursery, where thirteen of the children were currently sleeping. The most recent litter — three in number and barely a week old — were still blind and without fur. They were with Clover.

"Clover, love," Valerian urged, "please get up. It's not the children. But it will affect them. Badly."

With Clover, an appeal to family never failed. She forced herself up.

The two mice made their way up the entry hole to the ground surface. The long, twisting tunnel had a few storage rooms — one filled with nuts, another with dried berries, a third with seeds — built into the walls. Though Clover was, as usual, hungry, there was no time to eat.

When Valerian reached the ground's surface, he stuck his nose out of the entry hole, sniffed, then gazed about. Certain there were no foxes, wild cats or snakes, or any other danger about, he hauled himself out of the hole. Clover followed.

Tall, leafy trees, bushes, and brambles veiled the late summer sky, a sky aglow with the light of a full moon. The air was humid, the breeze soft. Barks and buzzes, grunts and chirps seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere all at once.

Valerian scampered down one of the many paths that radiated from the nest. When he took the path that followed a steep decline, Clover knew they were heading for the Brook.

"The Brook," as the mice called it, meandered lazily between low, leafy banks. Water lilies floated on its wide, shallow surface. There, fireflies flashed, butterflies danced. Mosquitoes, like ancient instruments, droned. Water bugs scooted. Cattails, standing tall, swayed to the rhythms of the night.

With nothing rough or dangerous about the Brook, the young mice loved to frolic about its banks. Rarely was the water more than six inches deep. Splendid to splash in. Fun to swim in. Sometimes the mice made rafts of bark chips and went boating. Indeed, it was the closeness of the Brook and its serenity that caused Clover and Valerian to build their nest and raise their family where they did.

That night everything was changed.

The water was muddier and deeper than it ever before had been. A full three feet of bare earth at the base of the pathway — the children's beach — had sunk beneath water. Lily pads and cattails were gone. No bugs teased the Brook's surface. Chips of wood floated here, there, everywhere.

"Look!" Valerian cried, in a hushed voice. He pointed downstream.

At first Clover didn't see it. Only gradually did she perceive the massive mound of sticks, twigs, and logs that spread across the full width of the stream.

"Why...my goodness," she gasped. "It's a...dam! But...but why?"

Valerian pointed to the water's edge.

"What should I be looking at?" asked a puzzled Clover.

"The water," Valerian whispered. "Watch."

Clover stared until, with a shock, she jumped back. "Valerian," she cried, "the water is rising!"

"Exactly."

"But...if it keeps coming this fast, our home will be...flooded! "

Valerian nodded. "Clover, love, I'm afraid the whole neighborhood is going under."

"But...but," Clover stammered, who would do such a dreadful thing?"

"Take a gander out there," Valerian urged. This time he pointed across the water.

Clover stared. At first she thought she was seeing nothing more than a floating brown lump of earth or wood. Then, with a start, she realized it was an animal swimming on the water's surface.

He was a large, portly fellow, with thick, glossy brown fur, a black nose, and two beady eyes. Two enormous buck teeth — brilliant orange in the light of the moon — stuck out from his mouth like chisels.

"A...beaver!" Clover exclaimed. Just to say the word brought understanding: Beavers had come and dammed the Brook.

As Clover and Valerian stared, the beaver saw them. Lifting his water-soaked head, he offered an immense, toothy smile.

"Bless my teeth and smooth my tail!" the beaver called out in a loud, raucous voice. "I do believe it's my new neighbors! Hey, pal! Evening, sweetheart! Tickled pink to meet up with you. The name is Caster P. Canad. But everybody calls me Cas. Hey," he added with another toothy grin, "you know what the old philosopher says, 'A stranger is just a friend you haven't met.'

"As for me, I'm head of the construction co that's doing the work here. Canad and Co. 'Progress Without Pain,' that's our motto."

"But...but...you've...destroyed our brook," Clover managed to say.

"Easy does it, sweetheart, easy does it," Mr. Canad boomed with insistent good nature. "Don't need to make a mountain out of a molehill, do we? Or for that matter," he added with a laugh that set his belly to shaking, "an ocean out of a puddle."

Without saying another word, Valerian and Clover turned and fled back up the path.

"Have a nice day!" the beaver shouted after them, though it was the middle of the night. "I mean that, sincerely!"

As the two mice dashed toward their nest, all Clover could think was, "Oh, Ragweed. Please, please come home. We need you! Where are you?"