Poppy’s Return
HarperCollins, 2005
illustrated by Brian Floca
Book 6 of 7
buy the book
audio book narrated by
John McDonough
The Poppy Books
if you liked this book, try:
What’s this book about?
Poppy returns … with big trouble. Family trouble.
Poppy and Rye don’t know what to do about their son Ragweed Junior’s attitude. He is rude, he is crude, and he has dyed his fur to look like Mephitis, his skunk friend. In short, Ragweed Junior is very much a teenager. Even Ereth, the cantankerous porcupine, with his salty swearing, can’t straighten him out.
Then Poppy gets an urgent request to return to her old home, Gray House, where her aging parents, Sweet Cicely and Lungwort, are in difficulties. Not only does she agree to go back, she decides to take Junior, in hopes traveling together will bring them together.
But when Junior’s skunk pal and Ereth join the party, the trip doesn’t quite go as expected.
And when Poppy recalls she did not get along with her parents, things become even more complicated.
Resources
- Teaching guide for all of the Poppy books
- Listen to Avi read from the other six Poppy books
Story Behind the Story
I recall reading a piece by John D. MacDonald—the mystery writer—giving advice to anyone who wanted (as he did) to write a successful series. I believe he said one had to write a number of them before giving it a full commitment. He may have been correct, but when it came to writing my Poppy series, it was never intended to be a series, and it took me fourteen years to write.