Callum Quinn, © 2023
Poppy
By Avi
The (a) story follows Poppy, a deer mouse living more or less in peace with her very large family at the edge of Dimwood Forest. But when a truly disastrous encounter brings the young mouse face to face with Mr. Ocax, a tyrannical great horned owl who has declared himself king of the forest and protector of the deer mice (as long as they obey his rules, of course), everything Poppy has ever known will be brought into question and tested. And it will take all her courage to make it through a perilous journey as she defies the owl, challenges expectations, and faces many of her fears as she searches for a new and better home for her ever-growing deer mouse family.
The (A) story is about manipulation. Mr. Ocax is clearly a danger to the mice, and yet they have always lived by his rules, respectfully asking his permission for everything from enjoying a night on Bannock Hill to the bigger decisions, such as moving house to save the family from starvation. What Mr. Ocax says, goes—and he gets away with his bullying because he has convinced the mice that he protects them from far worse things within the forest. He is a master manipulator, using his leverage as a larger predator as well as a number of lies in order to keep the mice in line—and even get away with eating them on occasion.
But this story is also an example of just how far manipulation can go among those who allow it. We see this most clearly with scenes involving Ragweed, Poppy’s ill-fated boyfriend who loudly and frequently questioned Ocax and his rules in front of Poppy’s family. Unfortunately, instead of taking a moment to really consider the points Ragweed was making, the deer mice shunned him and looked on him with disdain. Not only does Ocax’s manipulation run so deep that the mice remain oppressed by him, but they also vilify those who would think any differently from what they have been programmed to believe. This especially deadly attribute of manipulation is clearly examined throughout Poppy’s story.
I cannot remember how old I was when I first read Poppy, but I had to have been in elementary school. I loved it so much and read it frequently; reading it as an adult has shown me just how young a reader I must have been.
Not that Poppy is a bad book. It’s just a bit juvenile for my current tastes. Which, again, is not the book’s fault: it was obviously written for a younger audience. Some parts of the writing are kind of corny, particularly Ragweed’s dialogue (Avi portrays him as some kind of hipster, but he’s a very cringe-worthily dated hipster—I think—even for the time it was written). Plus, when reading this book as an adult, the question comes to mind: is Ocax really a master manipulator, or are all the mice just that stupid? Particularly Poppy, unfortunately, who almost totally destroys the mice’s chance at freedom from Ocax because she just really wants to see the look on his face when she tells him the truth about what she discovered at New House.
I think, at the heart of things, Poppy is a delightful little children’s novel. Especially the concept of a little mouse going up against an owl is intriguing—something I think I imagined getting from Redwall and then didn’t (But that’s definitely a book series I need to revisit before I say anything further). The final battle is still kind of epic, even for an adult reader. But the majority of the book is just very simple. Definitely feel free to read it to your kids, if you have any, but if you’re looking for a book that will really keep your attention all the way through, you’d probably be better off picking up Avi’s The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle instead.
