Books in Tales from Dimwood Forest series

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?

King of the NightAt the very edge of Dimwood Forest stood an old charred oak where, silhouetted by the moon, a great horned owl sat waiting. The owls name was Mr. Ocax, and he looked like death himself. With his piercing gaze, he surveyed the lands he called his own, watching for the creatures he considered his subjects. Not one of them ever dared to cross his path. . .until the terrible night when two little mice went dancing in the moonlight. . .

A prequel to Avi's award-winning Poppy , this is the story of Ragweed, the mouse Poppy loved and lost. Long before Ragweed finds his way to Dimwood Forest and to Poppy, he leaves his family and serene country home behind and sets off by train for the big city, a place fraught with cars, buses, music, pleasure, excitement, attitude and danger--chiefly in the form of cats! Silversides, for instance, is an urbane specimen in a pink polyvinyl collar studded with diamond-like sequins. Founder and president of F.E.A.R.(Felines Enraged About Rodents), an organization dedicated to keeping cats on top, people in the middle, and mice on the bottom. Silversides and club vice president Graybar, stalks her prey relentlessly. Ragweed befriends hipster band members Clutch, Dipstick and Lugnut as well as Blinker, a timid and vulnerable pet-store mouse. Through these friends, he discovers a world where courage and loyalty are the keys to survival. In so doing, Ragweed learns to trust himself and take charge of his destiny. Together the mice transform an abandoned bookstore into a cool new club, the Cafe Independent, and plan a blowout--and cat-free--opening night. But with Silversides and Graybar prowling the sewers, just how long can their independence last?

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?

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 brithday Ereth the porcupine is never going to forget, not even if he lives to be a hundred and twenty-two!

It's not always easy being brave - especially if you are a deer mouse and only six inches long (and three inches of that is your tail!). Nevertheless, Poppy, with her beautiful orange-brown fur, dark round eyes and pink toes is forced to become braver than any other mouse. She and her family live in an old house on the edge of the sprawling, sinister Dimwood Forest. They are ruled over by Mr Ocax, a great horned owl who dwells in Dimwood. But the mice are not just his subjects - they are also the main ingredients of his dinner...This is the journey of one small mouse into a big, dark forest: a journey of courage and self-discovery.