Book Review: Poppy

It's our first book review guys!

Book: Poppy by Avi

Genre: Children’s novel

Rating: This book is the essence of my childhood, so I cannot in good faith come up with a numbered rating for this book without being biased. Feel free to read the rest of my review and judge for yourself.

General Setup: This book starts out with a description of the villain. Now, this guy is bad to the bone. He is evil, he is despicable, and he kills without mercy. One night he is looking for his next mark and he spots a couple on a top of a hill: a skater dude and his home-schooled girlfriend. The villain strikes, killing the skater instantly and grazing the girl.

That is pretty much how this book starts out, except I have omitted one detail: All the characters are animals!

Characters: The villain I mentioned before is an owl named Mr. Ocax who rules over an area called Dimwood Forest. He keeps his subjects in line by requiring them to ask permission before leaving their immediate territory. In exchange for this he promises to protect them from the menacing porcupine. Enter Ereth the porcupine, a crotchety, foul-mouthed and generally grumpy sweetheart. For those of you who aren’t familiar with the biology of porcupines, they are herbivores. So the fact that Mr. Ocax promises to protect the mice from porcupines is somewhat ridiculous (something I missed out on when I first read this book in second grade). Something else I didn’t pick up on right away is that Ereth’s full name (Erethizon Dorsatum) is actually the Latin name for porcupines -> fun fact! And finally, we get to Poppy, our main character! Throughout the book she grows past her timidness and benefits from venturing beyond her home. We get to see her grow as a character and join her in her first adventure!

Plot: To be honest, this book is only 160 pages. And it is aimed for an elementary-aged audience (kids 8 -12 to be exact). Those two factors could potentially lead to the plot being watered down, but that did not happen. Granted, the plot is not as intricate and complex as other books that are aimed for older audiences. However, Avi did really well with this book in that the characters drive the plot and the plot doesn’t drive the characters. What I am trying to say is that the plot advances because of decisions made by characters and how those decisions affect other characters, not because things happen for the benefit of things happening. Also, the little details that Avi inserts into the story really help it to come alive. Like, the side characters have personality! And Avi carefully chooses his words to present the best image with his words.

Ending: On one hand, I feel like Avi could have ended the book at the end of the second to last chapter. Like, Poppy is back home, Ereth has been reunited with the love of his life, and the conflict is resolved. However, the last chapter (which is all of six paragraphs) ends the book on a nice note and not Poppy’s father awkwardly jumping on the bandwagon at the last second.

Things to Watch For: Some characters die, but it isn’t really graphic. I read this in 2nd grade, okay?

Sights: Since this was a book you weren’t expecting to see this section, were you? Well, Poppy includes illustrations scattered throughout the pages by Brian Floca. They really add to the experience of the book, so I’m just gonna take a minute to talk about them.

First of all, the illustrations did not inhibit my ability to enjoy the book as a work. While reading the book I was able to form my own mind pictures that were independent from what the illustrations looked like. Also, the illustrations and the text really blended well together. This includes not only how the pictures illustrate the text, but how they were placed on the page.

Secondly, Brian Floca is a very talented illustrator. He has a large body of work varying in style and genre. For the illustrations in Poppy he works in graphite, and let me tell you they are beautiful in their attention to detail and composition!

Other media: I’ve gotten this mixed up before, but technically Poppy is the second book in a six-book series, even if it was written first chronologically.