Ragweed (The Dimwood Forest Chronicles) - Hardcover

Avi

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0689836511 ISBN 13: 9780689836510

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Children's, 2003

Synopsis

A mouse has to do what a mouse has to do.

Ragweed is determined to see the world. He leaves his family and cozy country home and sets off by train for the big city. What wonders await him: music, excitement, new friends...and cunning, carnivorous cats! Silversides is the purring president of F.E.A.R. (Felines Enraged About Rodents), a group dedicated to keeping cats on top, people in the middle, and mice on the bottom. Can Ragweed and his motley yet musical crew of city nice--Clutch, Dipstick, Lugnut, and Blinker--band together to fight their feline foe?

About this title

About the Author

Avi is the author of more than sixty books, including Crispin: The Cross of Lead, a Newbery Medal winner, and Crispin: At the Edge of the World. His other acclaimed titles include The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle and Nothing But the Truth, both Newbery Honor Books, and most recently The Seer of Shadows. He lives with his family in Colorado.

Brian Floca's illustrations have appeared in several books by Avi, including the six volumes of the Poppy stories and the graphic novel City of Light, City of Dark. For younger readers, he is the author and illustrator of Moonshot: The Flight of Apollo II as well as the highly praised books Lightship, a Robert F. Sibert Honor Book and ALA Notable Book; The Racecar Alphabet, also an ALA Notable Book; and Five Trucks.

From School Library Journal

Grade 3-6-Ragweed, the golden mouse who appeared briefly in Poppy (Orchard, 1995) before being devoured by an owl, gets an entire book to himself in this prequel. At an early age, he sets off to explore the world beyond the Brook, so he hitches a train and ends up in the town of Amperville. Unfortunately, a fierce house cat named Silversides has created an organization called Felines Enraged About Rodents (F.E.A.R.), and is trying to rid the town of all mice. Ragweed is saved from Silversides's claws by Clutch, a streetwise young mouse who dyes her head fur green, wears an earring, and plays in a rock band. As F.E.A.R. becomes more and more of a threat, Ragweed and Clutch hatch a plan to unite the town mice at their new club, the Caf? Independent, where they stand up against the cats and win. After this victory, however, Ragweed's wanderlust compels him to leave Amperville and travel onward...to Dimswood Forest. Fun and breezy, this adventure should appeal to fans of the series and newcomers as well. It does bog down whenever the focus goes from Ragweed and his friends to the bitter Silversides, and kids probably won't be interested in Clutch's stereotypically bohemian parents (an artist and a poet). The constant slangy jive-talking of Clutch and her pals ("Look, when I say cool, I mean, you know, like, it's good") will either irritate or amuse readers, but the thrilling climax at the Caf? Independent will leave them breathless.
Eva Mitnick, Los Angeles Public Library
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Simon & Schuster Children's
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 0689836511
• ISBN 13: 9780689836510
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 224