I’m confused about the order of books in this series, because I have two with different titles and they both say ‘book three of the Poppy series’ on the front cover. I think some were written after the series started, as prequels and then they were all reordered? Regardless, I started with this one, and didn’t feel like I was missing much even though maybe it was the middle of the larger story arc.
It’s about a little deer mouse (named Poppy) who is part of a huge family. Her father leads them all- and reading between the lines he’s something of a pompous fool, but they follow along. This father mouse has them all in fear of an owl who demands they follow his rules, eats some of them on a regular basis, and restricts their movements. But their population has grown beyond the food supply, so Poppy and her father go beseeching the owl to let half of them move to a new house they know has been built on the other side of the dark forest. He says NO, but also seems nervous about something. This makes Poppy very intrigued. She’s all upset because right before this proposal to move, her boyfriend had been killed by the owl- who now blames that mouse’s blatant refusal to follow the owl’s rules, for his refusal to let the mice move. Poppy feels this isn’t fair and decides- in spite of her many fears- to travel to the new house and see what’s there.
She bravely ventures across open spaces, narrowly avoids the owl, and traverses the dark forest. Only pleasantly surprised to find it isn’t as gloomy and dangerous as she’d supposed. It’s quite beautiful in a different way. She meets a porcupine, and has more surprises- having been taught a bunch of nonsense about these prickly animals. The porcupine is short of temper, but helps her reach the new house in exchange for some salt he craves. The reader was just as surprised as the mouse to find out why the owl didn’t want them to go to the new house- and I laughed out loud. All these revelations challenging things Poppy had always assumed to be true, change her remarkably. She arms herself with one of the porcupine’s dropped quills, faces her worst enemy, and heads back for home with news that will shake up the entire mouse family. Bravo, Poppy!
This was really well-written, told in a lively and engaging fashion. Even though I had my doubts at the beginning (I found the mouse-boyfriend’s slang and backtalk a bit awkward, but maybe that was done so on purpose). I liked the interactions of the mice with the nasty owl, and the grumpy but well-meaning porcupine. I’m looking forward to reading more in this series.
Borrowed from the public library. Completed on 7/3/24.
