Ragweed

Ragweed is the prequel to Poppy in the ‘Dimwood Forest Chronicles’, and if the other chronicles were similar I wouldn’t recommend them, unless you know a mouse-mad nine-year-old who doesn’t care for authenticity or consistency. Ragweed is a golden country mouse who leaves his cosy home to find excitement in the city of Amperville. There he meets cool mice such as Clutch and Dipstick, and finds mice can be different colours, such as the laboratory-bred albino mouse Blinker. He also discovers cats, and how much they hate mice.

The story follows the mice’s quest to successfully set up a club without being raided or eaten along the way by the cats. There’s lots of ‘cool’ dialogue, painfully using words such as ‘dude’, ‘phat’ and ‘sweet’, showing how streetwise the city mice are, and how cool Ragweed becomes. There are some good scenes of tension and planning between the cat and mice, but the whole story feels lame and the concept is incomplete – adopting modern human ways such as reading, skateboarding, modern art and poetry, but still eating cheese and not wearing any clothes. Avi’s creation has as many holes in as a Swiss cheese.