- Paperback: 192 pages
- Publisher: Red Fox; New edition edition (7 Jan 1993)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0099205610
- ISBN-13: 978-0099205616
- Product Dimensions: 17.4 x 11 x 1.4 cm
- Average Customer Review: 1.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
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- #31 in Books > Children's Books > Authors & Illustrators > D > Dann, Colin
Battle For The Park (Red Fox middle fiction)
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Product Description
Book Description
Another gripping adventure of the animals of Farthing Wood, by award-winning author Colin Dann
Product Description
'I've been looking for him all over the Park. He's just not around any more, Vixen. He's gone.'
When Plucky the fox disappears, the other animals soon realise that he isn't the only one missing from the White Deer Park nature reserve. And the Warden, whom the animals have learnt to trust, is responsible!
The animals are frightened and confused - and then another threat appears. A stelthy gang of rats, led by the cunning Bully is invading White Deer Park . . .
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is the seventh book in the 'Animals of Farthing Wood' series (or eighth if you take the prequel, written after the other books, as the first), and last. It is also, in my opinion, the least enjoyable.
The plot follows the few remaining original Farthing Wood animals and their descendents as they fight to defend their home, White Deer Park, from an invading horde of rats - there seem to have been no rats in the Park prior to this, which is a highly unlikely starting point. I was deeply disappointed that the author, who can usually be relied upon to be fairly accurate and impartial with regards to the information he gives about wild animals, resorted in this book to every commonly-held prejudice on the subject of the rat, an animal which has already had more than its share of bad press. The fact that rats are in fact very clean and intelligent animals, and that they are as much a part of the ecosystem as any other creature, is completely ignored here - Dann hits them with every negative stereotype, portraying them as dirty, vicious, disease-ridden beasts intent on taking over White Deer Park and driving out all its other inhabitants.
The story itself, regardless of the species involved, is simply a rather uninteresting string of violence and does not hold the imagination the way the previous books did, giving the sense that the author is beginning to run out of ideas, and as a fan of the 'Farthing Wood' books since childhood, I found this a most unsatisfactory end to the series. Since either of the two preceding books could have served as the last, I feel that perhaps the author should have quit while he was ahead, rather than to milk such a successful series to the point that it ends on such a low note.
The plot follows the few remaining original Farthing Wood animals and their descendents as they fight to defend their home, White Deer Park, from an invading horde of rats - there seem to have been no rats in the Park prior to this, which is a highly unlikely starting point. I was deeply disappointed that the author, who can usually be relied upon to be fairly accurate and impartial with regards to the information he gives about wild animals, resorted in this book to every commonly-held prejudice on the subject of the rat, an animal which has already had more than its share of bad press. The fact that rats are in fact very clean and intelligent animals, and that they are as much a part of the ecosystem as any other creature, is completely ignored here - Dann hits them with every negative stereotype, portraying them as dirty, vicious, disease-ridden beasts intent on taking over White Deer Park and driving out all its other inhabitants.
The story itself, regardless of the species involved, is simply a rather uninteresting string of violence and does not hold the imagination the way the previous books did, giving the sense that the author is beginning to run out of ideas, and as a fan of the 'Farthing Wood' books since childhood, I found this a most unsatisfactory end to the series. Since either of the two preceding books could have served as the last, I feel that perhaps the author should have quit while he was ahead, rather than to milk such a successful series to the point that it ends on such a low note.
1 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
The final book in the "Animals of Farthing Wood" series sees the aging community of animals fight for survival against an invading army of rats from outside White Deer Park, bringing with them disease and a savage attitude towards the rightful residents. In tandem, the warden of the park has began to kidnap other animals and remove them from the park completely.
Sadly the book is substantially less coherent than the others in the series, probably due to the fact that the first five or so were written almost a year apart, and this novel and its immediate predecessor were written in the nineties a decade after the first. There's less a sense of adventure in this final instalment and although the second half of the book brings some welcome resolution to the various character arcs, the first half is a genuinely lame story of confused friendship between Plucky, one of the descendants of the Farthing Wood Fox, and Dash, the excitable granddaughter of the Farthing Wood Hare. The mystery of the kidnapped animals feels like the beginning of a primary story arc and is then abandoned to make way for the plans of the rats, led by a nastily two-dimensional villain, Bully.
If you loved the other books you'll still like this one. In the end it was worth the few hours it took to read the Dann-standard 180 pages - but this has no way earned more than the two stars I've given it.
Sadly the book is substantially less coherent than the others in the series, probably due to the fact that the first five or so were written almost a year apart, and this novel and its immediate predecessor were written in the nineties a decade after the first. There's less a sense of adventure in this final instalment and although the second half of the book brings some welcome resolution to the various character arcs, the first half is a genuinely lame story of confused friendship between Plucky, one of the descendants of the Farthing Wood Fox, and Dash, the excitable granddaughter of the Farthing Wood Hare. The mystery of the kidnapped animals feels like the beginning of a primary story arc and is then abandoned to make way for the plans of the rats, led by a nastily two-dimensional villain, Bully.
If you loved the other books you'll still like this one. In the end it was worth the few hours it took to read the Dann-standard 180 pages - but this has no way earned more than the two stars I've given it.
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