Ragweed, a golden mouse, is riding the rails when Lotar, a frightened little raccoon, climbs into his boxcar. Tough-talking but soft-hearted, Ragweed helps reunite Lotar with his mother and then sets off happily on his own. Near a "human house," he hears a cry for help and finds Poppy, a deer mouse, caught in a metal box trap. After he leaves to seek help from her family, a girl finds Poppy and decides to keep her as a pet. In the story's climax, Ragweed, Poppy and her family, Lotar and his mother, the child and her parents, three men, and an excitable dog converge for an amusing, chaotic scene. Avi handles the large cast of familiar and new characters with ease, while pacing the narrative for maximum enjoyment. Floca's pencil drawings illustrate the story. In telling how Ragweed and Poppy become friends, this seventh volume in the Tales of Dimwood Forest series serves as a bridge between Ragweed (1999), a prequel, and Poppy (1995), the first-published book in the series. A must-read choice for Poppy fans.

Avi returns to Dimwood Forest, filling a gap in the series with the story of how Poppy the deer mouse met her flamboyant friend. Picking up where Ragweed (1999), chronologically the first book in the series, left off, the footloose golden mouse with the single earring again finds himself on a train--though not for long, as Lotar, a large but very young and "double-down dumb" raccoon, climbs into the boxcar and is separated from his mother when it begins moving. After squiring Lotar back to his mom, Ragweed finds himself on a second rescue mission after meeting Poppy, who has obliviously danced herself into a live-catch trap. In a stretched-out sequence of entrances and exits, Poppy manages to free herself, but Ragweed is snared, ultimately leading to a climactic mad scramble involving a family of humans, an eager dog, two raccoons, and hundreds of Poppy's sibs and relatives. Party time! As night falls, the two main mice slip away to dance in the moonlight…setting up Ragweed's first and last appearance in the rather naturalistic scene that opens Poppy (1995), the first-published book in the series. As favors to series fans Avi slips in a few cameos (notably by vituperative porcupine Ereth and local contractors of the Derrida Deconstruction Company) and a musical arrangement for Ragweed's theme song, "A Mouse Will A-Roving Go." Floca supplies spot and full-page illustrations (not seen in finished form) featuring, mostly, mouse-level views of events. A characteristically droll lagniappe for a durable and popular series. (Fantasy. 10-12) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.