Brian Floca – illustratör

Boston Globe-Horn Book Award Winner * ALA Notable Book * ALA Booklist Editors’ Choice * School Library Journal Best Book

In the third book in the Tales of Dimwood Forest by Newbery Medal-winning author Avi, a tiny deer mouse named Poppy dares to stand up to a tyrannical owl. The story is accompanied by inviting illustrations from Caldecott Medal-winning artist Brian Floca. 

“This exciting story is richly visual. The underlying messages, to challenge unjust authority and to rely on logic and belief in oneself, are palatably blended with action and suspense.” — School Library Journal

Poppy knew she was taking a risk following her beloved Ragweed to Bannock Hill, but a night of dancing with the handsome golden mouse was just too tempting. So when Ragweed is scooped up by the sinister owl, Mr. Ocax, who rules over Dimwood forest, she’s devastated. Her whole life she was warned of Mr. Ocax’s evil ways…how could she have been so foolish to put herself and Ragweed at risk?

To make matters worse, when Poppy attempts to move with her family to a different part of the woods where the food supply is richer, Mr. Ocax refuses to let them go. Despite what she’s been led to believe for years, Mr. Ocax is not as strong as he wants the mice to think he is. Armed with the bravery, gumption, and wit of a hero, Poppy embarks on a dangerous quest—joined by the irascible but lovable porcupine, Ereth—to defeat Mr. Ocax and lead her family to a better home.

A perennially popular story of courage and determination, Poppy is a fixture on state award lists and in classrooms across the country.

The fourth book in the beloved Poppy series by Newbery Medal–winning author Avi, with illustrations from Caldecott Medal–winning artist Brian Floca, is available as an ebook for the first time!

Erethizon Dorsatum—better known as Ereth, the self-centered, foul-tempered old porcupine—is having a birthday. And he fully expects his best friend Poppy, a deer mouse, to help him celebrate in a grand manner.

But Poppy has gone off somewhere with her husband, Rye, and it appears she has forgotten all about it. "Belching Beavers," says Ereth, "I am not angry!" (Though, perhaps he is—and more than just a little.)

Ereth knows his special occasion deserves a special treat—even if he has to get it for himself. And what treat could be more special than tasty salt? But the nearest salt is located deep in the forest, in a cabin occupied by fur hunters, who have set out traps to capture the Dimwood Forest animals. In one of the traps, Ereth finds Leaper the Fox—who, with her dying breath, begs the prickly porcupine to take care of her three boisterous young kits, Tumble, Nimble, and Flip. "Jellied walrus warts!" Ereth exclaims, but reluctantly agrees.

Certainly this day is not going as he planned—and it''s only just the beginning! Not only does Ereth suddenly have a rambunctious new family to take care of, but he''s being stalked by Marty the Fisher, the one creature in Dimwood Forest who can do him harm. And Bounder, the father of the three little foxes, remembers all too well the nose full of quills he got a while back from the grumpy old animal who now fancies himself the leader of the den. He too sets out to show Ereth who''s boss.

Throw in an unexpected snowstorm, and all in all, it adds up to one birthday Ereth the porcupine is never going to forget, not even if he lives to be a hundred and twenty-two!

The first book in the beloved Poppy series by Newbery Medal–winning author Avi, with illustrations from Caldecott Medal–winning artist Brian Floca, is available as an ebook for the first time!

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?

The first new book about Poppy in more than ten years, from Newbery Medal-winning author Avi with illustrations throughout by Caldecott Medal-winning artist Brian Floca.

Ragweed and Poppy is one of the "10 Top Middle-Grade Summer Reads," according to Kirkus Reviews!

How did Ragweed and Poppy meet and become friends? This book tells their hilarious story! Adventurous golden mouse Ragweed is on a freight train leaving the city of Amperville. On his journey, he meets Lotar, a young and bothersome raccoon who has lost his mother. Though Ragweed doesn’t really want to help the raccoon, by doing so he winds up in Dimwood Forest.

Ragweed is now ready to strike off on his own, but it’s not long before he hears a cry for help. Following the sound of the voice, he finds a cage with a deer mouse trapped inside. When he asks the mouse’s name, she replies, “Poppy.”

The story of Ragweed comes to Poppy''s aid, and how Poppy comes to his, is how their rousing and fateful friendship begins. As for that annoying raccoon, he keeps getting in the way.

Fans of animal tales and especially of the beloved previous books in the Poppy series will love Ragweed and Poppy!

Boston Globe-Horn Book Award Winner * ALA Notable Book * ALA Booklist Editors’ Choice * School Library Journal Best Book

In the second book in the Tales of Dimwood Forest by Newbery Medal-winning author Avi, a tiny deer mouse named Poppy dares to stand up to a tyrannical owl.  The story is accompanied by inviting illustrations from Caldecott Medal-winning artist Brian Floca. 

“This exciting story is richly visual. The underlying messages, to challenge unjust authority and to rely on logic and belief in oneself, are palatably blended with action and suspense.” — School Library Journal

Poppy knew she was taking a risk following her beloved Ragweed to Bannock Hill, but a night of dancing with the handsome golden mouse was just too tempting. So when Ragweed is scooped up by the sinister owl, Mr. Ocax, who rules over Dimwood forest, she’s devastated. Her whole life she was warned of Mr. Ocax’s evil ways…how could she have been so foolish to put herself and Ragweed at risk?

To make matters worse, when Poppy attempts to move with her family to a different part of the woods where the food supply is richer, Mr. Ocax refuses to let them go. Despite what she’s been led to believe for years, Mr. Ocax is not as strong as he wants the mice to think he is. Armed with the bravery, gumption, and wit of a hero, Poppy embarks on a dangerous quest—joined by the irascible but lovable porcupine, Ereth—to defeat Mr. Ocax and lead her family to a better home.

A perennially popular story of courage and determination, Poppy is a fixture on state award lists and in classrooms across the country.

The sixth book in the beloved Poppy series by Newbery Medal–winning author Avi, with illustrations from Caldecott Medal–winning artist Brian Floca

Has Ereth lost Poppy forever?

Poppy, a deer mouse, has spent the long winter curled up inside her tree snag home in Dimwood Forest. When the ground thaws and life returns to the woods, Poppy sets out in search of excitement. Suddenly, swooped up by Luci the bat, Poppy is flying high over the forest.

Meanwhile Poppy’s best friend, Ereth the grumbling porcupine, who was with Poppy when she vanished, is convinced that she has died. He sets out to give her the best funeral ever. Can Poppy find her way out of the bats’ cave to set Ereth straight and return home after the adventure of a lifetime?

The fifth book in the beloved Poppy series by Newbery Medal–winning author Avi, with illustrations from Caldecott Medal–winning artist Brian Floca, is available as an ebook for the first time!

There''s trouble at Gray House, the girlhood home that Poppy left long ago. Poppy''s family has called her back to save them all—mother, father, sisters and brothers, and dozens and dozens of deer mouse cousins.

Poppy invites her rebellious son, Junior, to join her on the long trip across Dimwood Forest, hoping the journey will bring them closer together.

But with Junior''s skunk pal, Mephitis, and Ereth, the cantankerous porcupine, in tow—sugared slug soup!—Poppy and Junior may be in for unexpected adventure.